Light side or Dark side story?

[Reynaga]

ok maybe you think that light and dark do not matter, but they have small changes. They do not change the over all story arc, but at one point someone had asked me to go and run a task for them. I was pissed, I was sick of the planet about two zones earlier, I hated the people, and then on top of it, this smug person was telling me that if I wanted his help that I had to go out and help him again. So I force choked him, OMG if this wasn't the most satisfying thing I had done all night, my wife was with me and she was like thank god, happy we didn't have to deal with this worm.

 

a couple months later I was back on the planet screwing around, killing things and collecting resources for whatever, when someone asked for help with a quest, another Jugg, I said sure. We get out to an area that I had been to and then there I see an instanced area that I never went in to which is where this guy had to go. We finished it and I had no idea where in the story he was because I couldn't remember that part. Turned out that this guy DID NOT choke the guy that I did and we were running his errand. I laughed about it and thought, I'm glad that when I was going through this, I killed the worthless cur.

 

 

 

recently my wife and I were playing troopers, I was dark side vanguard, she was light side commando. The storys gave us differing points of view, she was the republic hero that everyone adored and even recieved fan mail to this effect, I was the renegade vigilanty that no one could touch because I either killed them or they needed me too much. And yes there were parts where the choices we made even changed where we had to go for our story mode, who we saved and what we saw of the game.

Edited August 24, 2012 by Reynaga

[Dallayna]

ok maybe you think that light and dark do not matter, but they have small changes. They do not change the over all story arc, but at one point someone had asked me to go and run a task for them. I was pissed, I was sick of the planet about two zones earlier, I hated the people, and then on top of it, this smug person was telling me that if I wanted his help that I had to go out and help him again. So I force choked him, OMG if this wasn't the most satisfying thing I had done all night, my wife was with me and she was like thank god, happy we didn't have to deal with this worm.

 

a couple months later I was back on the planet screwing around, killing things and collecting resources for whatever, when someone asked for help with a quest, another Jugg, I said sure. We get out to an area that I had been to and then there I see an instanced area that I never went in to which is where this guy had to go. We finished it and I had no idea where in the story he was because I couldn't remember that part. Turned out that this guy DID NOT choke the guy that I did and we were running his errand. I laughed about it and thought, I'm glad that when I was going through this, I killed the worthless cur.

 

 

 

recently my wife and I were playing troopers, I was dark side vanguard, she was light side commando. The storys gave us differing points of view, she was the republic hero that everyone adored and even recieved fan mail to this effect, I was the renegade vigilanty that no one could touch because I either killed them or they needed me too much. And yes there were parts where the choices we made even changed where we had to go for our story mode, who we saved and what we saw of the game.

 

That's pretty well true period regardless of story or class, I've noticed....

 

Case in point: was wandering around with my current mara and wound up on a team with another warrior (who turned out to be DS while I wqas playing Light atm) and an inq for a bit... Did the inq's Class Quest and than "double tapped" ours....

 

The inquisitor was completely confused over the fact that the "same" scene- the same mission and... with the DS we had to beat Broonmark down wheras when I ran it... nothing like that....

 

I just pointed out to him that- well, "Different choices=Different outcomes"....

 

I've also noticed that your character can change what they say depending on which companion you have out for some things as well. So, yes, the variations in this game are actually quite well done for the most part... (lol, of course it's that "for the most part" that seems to really stick in the craw for some folks- myself included when it come to some things........ but, for the most part at least, that seems to be pretty normal for MMOs.....)

Edited August 26, 2012 by Dallayna

[Kvarnol]

Sorry for a little off topic but what determinate which jaesa williams you get - alignment or choices?

[JamieM]

Sorry for a little off topic but what determinate which jaesa williams you get - alignment or choices?

 

Dialogue choices.

 

And for the record I absolutely loved levelling as a Dark Sith Juggernaut. All that was missing was killing younglings and then the experience would have been complete! Fingers crossed that's an option in the future. If you're going to go Dark, might as well go the whole way! None of this wishy-washy bollocks!

Edited August 29, 2012 by JamieM

[OmenQ]

Just finished the class story last night on my Jugg. I LOVED being a pure evil, Dark V, pureblood Sith. Sure, I spared a few people here or there that I felt were useful to me, but only if they were sufficiently scared of me.

 

I also loved humiliating Baras and exposing him as the liar he has always been. Being the Emperor's Wrath is also more fitting if you're dark side.

For the record, I choked the life out of Quinn when he betrayed me. If given the option, I'd have killed him on the spot. I'd rather be without a healer than put up with that worm.

 

[Invictos]

All that said, the story and the way the game was set up (choices don't matter) Light Side doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Yes you are saving all these Imperials and making the Empire strong but your choices dont matter at all in this game. The 98% of the lightside choices dont impact your story in any way.

 

That principle cuts both ways, though. Personally, I think the idea of a Dark Side super-bad-guy Sith is great -- until you meet any of about a thousand open-world quest NPCs that you can't touch. Realistically, if I were a super-bad SIth, I'd be crushing people who sassed me right and left, but I can't, because the game basically only gives you that power in instanced class quests (and some main-planet quests). For me, that contrast -- between the super-bad Sith in story instances and the guy who has to act with a veneer of civility in public -- would result in a cognitive dissonance that I don't think I'd enjoy.

 

And, then, of course, there's that one event in the main storyline itself:

 

 

How do you handle the fact that you can't kill Quinn after he betrays you? Honestly, even as a mostly light-sided SW, I had a problem with that scene: my choices were, if I recall, to choke him for a few seconds and spout impotent threats (DS points), or to utter some mealy-mouthed nonsense about expecting Quinn to be faithful from now on. Even a relatively good SW, in my opinion, would at least kick Quinn to the curb, but oh well.

 

Anyway, the point is that the scene is bad enough when you're playing an LS character. i can't imagine how silly it would feel if you're playing a galactic terror.

 

[JamieM]

 

 

How do you handle the fact that you can't kill Quinn after he betrays you? Honestly, even as a mostly light-sided SW, I had a problem with that scene: my choices were, if I recall, to choke him for a few seconds and spout impotent threats (DS points), or to utter some mealy-mouthed nonsense about expecting Quinn to be faithful from now on. Even a relatively good SW, in my opinion, would at least kick Quinn to the curb, but oh well.

 

Anyway, the point is that the scene is bad enough when you're playing an LS character. i can't imagine how silly it would feel if you're playing a galactic terror.

 

 

I agree that that particular episode was extremely poorly handled by BioWare and the writers. If I'm right originally the scene was constructed so that you could crush Quinn's windpipe - this was back when BioWare allowed you to perma kill your companions back in closed beta testing. However the outcry from testers was such that they felt they couldn't make such a choice permanent as too many people complained that they wanted their healer companion back. It was a difficult choice but they should have at least removed the betrayal altogether in that case as the dialogue and action for that scene were so out of sync with the character's story arc up to that point, it was borderline ridiculous. A very sloppy job there by BioWare. Sad because the story up to that point was pretty good overall and that really spoiled it.

 

[Invictos]

I agree that that particular episode was extremely poorly handled by BioWare and the writers. If I'm right originally the scene was constructed so that you could crush Quinn's windpipe - this was back when BioWare allowed you to perma kill your companions back in closed beta testing. However the outcry from testers was such that they felt they couldn't make such a choice permanent as too many people complained that they wanted their healer companion back. It was a difficult choice but they should have at least removed the betrayal altogether in that case as the dialogue and action for that scene were so out of sync with the character's story arc up to that point, it was borderline ridiculous. A very sloppy job there by BioWare. Sad because the story up to that point was pretty good overall and that really spoiled it.

 

Yeah, that's my understanding too. What should happen, IMO, is that ...

 

 

Bioware should allow storyline/companion respecs, as described here.

 

I think the reasoning cited for the lack of meaningful storyline choices in the game is a false dilemma. Bioware had the right idea originally, but they weren't thinking like MMO developers; single-player RPGs allow you to save and reload. MMOs don't. Is that a good reason to handcuff the writers by forcing them not to allow consequential story choices? No. So sure, it'd be unfortunate to take away a player's only healing companion because the companion turns out to be a sniveling traitor -- but there's no reason that Quinn has to be the only available healer, ever. Why couldn't you be given the option to make, say, Vette the healer after you kill Quinn?

 

It's not like there's a significant mechanical difference between any of the healing companions. All companions are just generic role-fillers, and all player-character classes have access to the same companion abilities, in principle.

 

Etc. Etc. I could ramble on forever about this. Sorry

 

Edited August 29, 2012 by Invictos

[JamieM]

I completely agree. Once upon a time you had the option to give your companions "skill kits" which dictated what role they could fill. There were healing kits, burst aoe kits, crowd control kits etc, but BW did away with them a few months before early access as I presume they deemed the mechanic too fiddly and unreliable and who knows perhaps this was a consequence of removing companion perma death as changing your companions' role was no longer necessary as you have each companion forever now. I agree with their conclusion but it really seems though that instead of working out a better solution they just hurriedly locked the companions' roles into place without exploring a better option vis a vis each character's story arc. Which sucks, because if I'm brutally honest story is about the only thing this game has going for it at the moment. Everything else has been done before, or in some cases, just plain done better. Edited August 30, 2012 by JamieM

[Invictos]

I completely agree. Once upon a time you had the option to give your companions "skill kits" which dictated what role they could fill. There were healing kits, burst aoe kits, crowd control kits etc, but BW did away with them a few months before early access as I presume they deemed the mechanic too fiddly and unreliable and who knows perhaps this was a consequence of removing companion perma death as changing your companions' role was no longer necessary as you have each companion forever now. I agree with their conclusion but it really seems though that instead of working out a better solution they just hurriedly locked the companions' roles into place without exploring a better option vis a vis each character's story arc. Which sucks, because if I'm brutally honest story is about the only thing this game has going for it at the moment. Everything else has been done before, or in some cases, just plain done better.

 

Absolutely. Anything Bioware does (or did) to weaken the game's one demonstrable strength is not a good thing. A lot of people seem to think that Bioware spent too many resources on story content, and frankly, I can't know whether they're right without also knowing exactly how many resources Bioware spent where -- but I do think that Bioware had the right idea: the key to MMO success is to draw people in and make them invest emotionally in their characters. Once you've done that, half the battle is won.

 

SWTOR's story is an excellent draw-you-in tool, in principle. Leveling in this game is an absolute dream in comparison with most others. The problem is that Bioware made a handful of annoying compromises that hurt the player's immersion just enough that the player is doubly annoyed when he comes to realize that there's very little else (besides the story) going on in this game. Character customization is probably the big one, IMO, but the lack of meaningful choices in the game is a close second.

 

All characters look (more or less) the same. All characters have the same collection of companions (who, ironically, probably have more singular cosmetic options than PCs do). All characters, with some minor variations, have the same story line. Hell, I have three level 50 characters, and all of them use the same face because I can't stand the relatively small number of alternatives -- but worse than that, I run into NPCs using my face every 10 minutes or so. (For some reason, SW seems to be the worst in that sense; several prominent SW/Empire characters use my face of choice.)

 

So how much can I be expected to invest in my character, realistically? I enjoy the story, but there really isn't even a convincing illusion that it's my character's story. And when the story's over? My generic character mostly loses his appeal.

Edited August 30, 2012 by Invictos

[kalistea]

I agree that that particular episode was extremely poorly handled by BioWare and the writers. If I'm right originally the scene was constructed so that you could crush Quinn's windpipe - this was back when BioWare allowed you to perma kill your companions back in closed beta testing. However the outcry from testers was such that they felt they couldn't make such a choice permanent as too many people complained that they wanted their healer companion back. It was a difficult choice but they should have at least removed the betrayal altogether in that case as the dialogue and action for that scene were so out of sync with the character's story arc up to that point, it was borderline ridiculous. A very sloppy job there by BioWare. Sad because the story up to that point was pretty good overall and that really spoiled it.

 

 

This I totally agree that Bioware should have removed the whole betrayal incident... or make the ship's droid betray you after all it belonged to Baras beforehand

 

 

About playing LS vs DS, if you are a new player keep in mind that you will make your life more complicated if you are a LS warrior, and some of your missions could take longer. You'll sometimes have to go through a lot of hassle to complete quests, whereas as a DS warrior you could just have killed off the annoying NPC and be done with it.

 

I found many examples of that as I was leveling my LS sith warrior but still checked the DS choices and hit the escape key before the end of dialogue.

 

The best I can remember was on Alderaan, when you...

 

have to invade Gesselle Organa's base to investigate about Jaesa's parents. If you play DS you only have to threaten to kill her lover to break her. She'll just beg you to spare him and give you Jaesa's parents' location and even the key to get inside. Then you can still kill her or the guy if you want to be really evil

 

But as LS you have to help her reinforce her front, that is going to a cave further away from the base, killing all the mobs inside, talking to Gesselle's lieutenant and repelling 3 waves of mobs... makes the whole quest significantly longer

I have no regrets though, the fight was epic and the videos turned out nicely, so it was definitely worth the time

 

Edited September 2, 2012 by kalistea

[Hemicrusher]

I am pure DS and will never choose a LS path.......

[iDraxter]

just as a note...stop telling ppl to go jedi knight if you wanna be light side. I went JK till lvl 22 and had to delete it, it was driving me crazy all my lines we`re "Is there anything I can do to help?/I`m here to help/ What do you want me to do/ How can I help/the jedi way is to serve" I mean i love lightside on all my toons but don`t take me for a fool. Lightside Sith is so much fun!

[Negranit]

just as a note...stop telling ppl to go jedi knight if you wanna be light side. I went JK till lvl 22 and had to delete it, it was driving me crazy all my lines we`re "Is there anything I can do to help?/I`m here to help/ What do you want me to do/ How can I help/the jedi way is to serve" I mean i love lightside on all my toons but don`t take me for a fool. Lightside Sith is so much fun!

Exactly. Besides, a light side sith is not necessarily the same as a jedi: he can still be driven by passion.

[Costello]

I found very very few of the choices I made had any impact on the game and often it was just crazy.

 

I played as a Grey Sith cause I wanted to pick the choices I liked over light or dark deciding what I said. So I could choke loved ones if it got what I wanted and give weapons of destruction to the empire but equally took allies if it was in my best interest and allow Imperials to live even if I could have choked them.

 

Being Grey offers some more choices at the end of Chapter 1 and even get a slightly different chat cause she can sence both good and evil in you a more well rounded person. I then opted to go for the Vader like lines of strike me down etc etc. This then pushes her down a certain path, later we are talking and she wants to go hunt light leaning Sith having identified myself as one when we first met.

 

This is a very minor point but one echoed through out the game, where being light side you will make reference to the power of the darkside. No amount of affection will change betrayal and no matter how loyal you are you will follow a certain path through the story that is the same as if you are a jerk all the way through.

Edited September 14, 2012 by Costello

[Sneakycheeks]

My Sith Warrior is Light side..and I've really been enjoying the storyline ^^

[ahzecklawd]

Well , to be Fair , both are amazingly good . I played a Jug up to 55 (Full DS , no LS option AT ALL!) and I enjoyed it . I made a Mara and played it LS through out the story with some DS choices and I can tell you this 'It's amazing' .

 

It's more of a 'Sword before Brain' vs 'Brain before Sword' . I don't see the sense , in killing millions of Ppl when they could help me achieving my Goals faster,easier and the Face on Bara's when you do not do what he's telling you to do , is just epic .

[redhoodrider]

The way I play my Sith Juggernaut (And the way all should play him) is as a feared punisher of justice. He protects and spares the innocent, but brings down a terrible wrath and judgement upon the evil and corrupt. He's also a DIEHARD Imperial loyal, and will kill anyone who threatens it's safety and refuses to back down, though at the same time he also hates and is disgusted by slavery and Imperial racism/arrogance, kind of like Malgus's outlook. Sort've like Venom (Eddie Brock), Ghost Rider or The Punisher. He's a good guy, but he is a true Sith as well.

[SabreNova]

So with Jaesa, even if I go LS on my SW and make her turn to the dark side, can i still romance her even though i'm techincally LS?

[Daxer]

Light side story was my favourite on my Marauder, it is hard to say why though to avoid spoilers, but in the end, I think it adds a lot of story to it.

 

I've always been a fan of being like that anyway, I mean the jedi are too shackeled with all the "no emotion" crap and the sith are reckless with all the "death and destruction and anger" crap. Why can't you just controll the force, have a lightsaber and still remain completely human, not falling to either side?

 

With that said i went completely lightside and i loved the story, it feels more like an honorable warrior that way.

 

Also to answer your question, if you go lightside but still choose the darkside options to make jaesa dark side, I think you can just max her affection with gifts and then romance her anyway .

I can't imagine why though, since SW lets you romance a twi'lek as the only class.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Daxer

[FettsMummy]

I went Light side and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[MCaliban]

I love dark side sith warrior. You're a complete and utter monster. You're less a person and more a (deadly) force of nature.

[Prince_of_Rome]

Darkside Juggernaut was really fun.

Especially when you get Jaesa. It was really fun being evil with Jaesa, especially since she likes doing evil things and you get a lot of affection points.

[redhoodrider]

Light side story was my favourite on my Marauder, it is hard to say why though to avoid spoilers, but in the end, I think it adds a lot of story to it.

 

I've always been a fan of being like that anyway, I mean the jedi are too shackeled with all the "no emotion" crap and the sith are reckless with all the "death and destruction and anger" crap. Why can't you just controll the force, have a lightsaber and still remain completely human, not falling to either side?

 

With that said i went completely lightside and i loved the story, it feels more like an honorable warrior that way.

 

Also to answer your question, if you go lightside but still choose the darkside options to make jaesa dark side, I think you can just max her affection with gifts and then romance her anyway .

I can't imagine why though, since SW lets you romance a twi'lek as the only class.

 

I love this approach...Sort've the "honorable warrior" path. Craving battle and personal conflict but not being a complete monster either. Wish the canon Star Wars universe had more Sith like that.

[rklontz]

I have a light side Jugg and a dark side Mara and I enjoyed the light side better then the dark side. It seemed to support the "for the emperor/empire" story line better