Developers favor Empire...?

[patchew]

yeaaaaaaa, try both sides and then comment. Pubs are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of imps. oo we got a few superficial things ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. wow, thats awesome. I'll take Pubs PVP and class skills ahead of Imps, any day. If Imps had the PVP cop-on of Pubs, theyd walk all over em constantly.

You have the trinkets, kk thanks.

[Sir_Raston]

I have played both sides.

 

I have a lvl 50 JK, 50 GS and a 43 Comando (among others)

 

and I have

 

a lvl 39 Powertech and a 33 Sniper.

 

Far and away, the game favors empire. Their story arcs are better, their armor looks better, and in most cases the dialog choices are better...

 

Summation of republic quest lines... "Oh noes, we made a super weapon and the empire stole it, save us from ourselves hero!"

[ThePedigree]

To all the Rep's saying that they favor the Empire because of armor appearance or "Our Endgame gear is ugly". That is most definitely a two way street. You may have your space samurai and power ranger armor, but we have the Inquisitor Swamp Thing suit, the Bull horn helm, the Terminator and Terminator with wings suits, and countless outfits that give you shoulders long enough to glide with or a mudflap tailfin over your butt...from a chest piece.

 

My point? BOTH sides have ugly armor. It's not really a fair comparison. As much as the republic wants to complain about their lack of end game gear that looks like Jedi robes, they have no shortage of options along the level path. Conversely, the Marauders and Inquisitors are still looking for simple long black robe options. Both sides have appearance issues.

 

About the only classes that I've seen have some consistently decent or sensible looking gear options are Bounty Hunters and Commandos, ironically the mirror classes of each other. And both classes have some gear sets with parts that can be pretty goofy looking.

 

Appearance really isn't a strong argument for who has it worse off.

[Elyx]

Honestly I get the completely opposite impression. All these arguments about the Devs favoring the Empire revolve around dumb little cosmetic stuff and a warehouse full of CE figures they couldn't move. But look at the actual meat of the game, the story:

 

 

In each Republic class story (except possibly Smuggler, haven't played it), you fight against the Sith Empire as your primary antagonists (The Emperor, the First Son, Havoc Squad). If you're an Imperial player? Well, you ALSO get to fight against the Sith Empire as your primary antagonists!

 

The Big Bads of the Empire stories are: 2 Dark Council members, a corrupted Jedi, and the neutral Star Cabal. Not one of those antagonists is a straight-up, legitimate general or Jedi that the Republic would really be sorry to lose. Saresh is frankly a better Chancellor than Janarus anyway, so even that's not a huge loss.

 

Then of course there's the Battle for Ilum/False Emperor series, where the Republic fights against a hero of the Empire, and what do you know the Imperial players ALSO fight against a hero of the Empire.

 

Is anyone at this point holding their breath that say, Satele Shan will become an antagonist in a future FP? Certainly not the next one, because we already know it's the Dread Masters, so us Imps can cut down another huge asset to the war, just because.

 

 

Compared to that, I don't see how some cash shop fodder means the Devs favor the Imps.

 

Interesting points Paul. Upon reflection though, I could see that being a case of storyflow and culture development rather then a developer bias.

 

the Empire is currently the "conquerors". Plus, they are devisive by nature (a.k.a you work your way up in the ranks by sabotaging and betraying your superiors, not by effective teamwork). so a divided empire would be further fueled by the possibilities in a war that they are winning.

 

And on the republic side, they are the "underdogs". they are responding to a sith invasion. this has the tendency to band people together...even people that normally wouldn't want to work together team up for the sake of simple survival. so what you describe seems just like what would happen in an evil empirical society trying to dominate and control a free republic.

 

On the OP...I have always felt that they either favored the empire, or at least put the most development time into the storylines. or at the least, they had a gap in creativity when it came to making stories for the "good guys" (as well as costumes). My issue is that functional does not need to be ugly. pure and simple. and especially the higher level gear for republic...it is FAR from plain and functional...yet it's ugly as sin. course...I'm not happy with about 90% of the tier gear atm (only one I really like is the agent and the inquisitor sets). but still...

[Sarlegant]

alright, I read again, the classes are 100% mirrored.

 

How do you mirror 2 pistols to 1 sniper rifle? I'm not saying GS is better or worse than Sniper ability wise... but keeping 2 pistols upgraded is 2 barrels, two crystals, duece mods, and a pair of enhancements.

 

Basic accuracy with the offhand pistol is only 57%, 67% for specials... alot of misses.

 

I already said I parked my GS at level 22, simply because the cover/turret mechanics don't work for my image of a gunfighter... call it cosmetic differance.... I'd rather a sniper used cover, and that favors Empire.

 

This morning, I started a sniper and got up to level 12... a lot less missing altogether.

 

Anyway, I'm a noob with GS and Sniper... someone explain how BW made GS a 100% mirror of Sniper please.

[Goretzu]

alright, I read again, the classes are 100% mirrored.

 

How do you mirror 2 pistols to 1 sniper rifle? I'm not saying GS is better or worse than Sniper ability wise... but keeping 2 pistols upgraded is 2 barrels, two crystals, duece mods, and a pair of enhancements.

 

Basic accuracy with the offhand pistol is only 57%, 67% for specials... alot of misses.

 

I already said I parked my GS at level 22, simply because the cover/turret mechanics don't work for my image of a gunfighter... call it cosmetic differance.... I'd rather a sniper used cover, and that favors Empire.

 

This morning, I started a sniper and got up to level 12... a lot less missing altogether.

 

 

 

Anyway, I'm a noob with GS and Sniper... someone explain how BW made GS a 100% mirror of Sniper please.

You're right that there may be some differences levelling up, but in the same grade of gear they should be doing the same amount of damage.

[RazielHex]

Far and away, the game favors empire. Their story arcs are better, their armor looks better, and in most cases the dialog choices are better...

 

Summation of republic quest lines... "Oh noes, we made a super weapon and the empire stole it, save us from ourselves hero!"

 

This is all subjective.

 

You should try playing a smuggler.

 

And on the republic side, they are the "underdogs". they are responding to a sith invasion. this has the tendency to band people together...even people that normally wouldn't want to work together team up for the sake of simple survival. so what you describe seems just like what would happen in an evil empirical society trying to dominate and control a free republic.

 

I don't know what invasion you're referring to. Corellia succeeded from the Republic. The Empire's goal was to stop the rebellion caused by the planetary legislature's movement. The Republic's goal was to further the insurrection and re-annex the planet.

 

Taris was never invaded, just destabilized. The Empire had no plans to settle it. or conquer it. They just wanted to make sure that the Republic couldn't either. They saw the Republic's efforts to colonize it as an "insult" to Darth Malak's "Blessing" of the planet 300 years ago.

 

The Republic, however, did invade Balmorra after their financed rebellion was crushed.

Edited August 29, 2012 by RazielHex

[Blev]

Honestly I get the completely opposite impression. All these arguments about the Devs favoring the Empire revolve around dumb little cosmetic stuff and a warehouse full of CE figures they couldn't move. But look at the actual meat of the game, the story:

 

 

In each Republic class story (except possibly Smuggler, haven't played it), you fight against the Sith Empire as your primary antagonists (The Emperor, the First Son, Havoc Squad). If you're an Imperial player? Well, you ALSO get to fight against the Sith Empire as your primary antagonists!

 

The Big Bads of the Empire stories are: 2 Dark Council members, a corrupted Jedi, and the neutral Star Cabal. Not one of those antagonists is a straight-up, legitimate general or Jedi that the Republic would really be sorry to lose. Saresh is frankly a better Chancellor than Janarus anyway, so even that's not a huge loss.

 

Then of course there's the Battle for Ilum/False Emperor series, where the Republic fights against a hero of the Empire, and what do you know the Imperial players ALSO fight against a hero of the Empire.

 

Is anyone at this point holding their breath that say, Satele Shan will become an antagonist in a future FP? Certainly not the next one, because we already know it's the Dread Masters, so us Imps can cut down another huge asset to the war, just because.

 

 

Compared to that, I don't see how some cash shop fodder means the Devs favor the Imps.

 

 

Couple things

 

1) The Emperor still lives

2) The Dread Masters were seen as a direct threat to the Emperor, he was the one that had them captured in the first place. It was a given from the get go that these guys would more than likely be duking it out as a warring Empire faction.

3) The Corrupted Jedi - I assume here you are talking about the Jedi Battlemaster Jun Seros in the Bounty Hunter story? He was actually fairly important to the Republic considering he was Janarus's top aide and general.

4) Imperials killed Revan (I kind of view this as the great equalizer)

5) The Empire wipe out the entire Green Jedi Council along with a good portion of the Green Jedi.

 

The weird thing here, is over half the Jedi Council appears to be MIA. There is a list of the Jedi Council at the bottom of this page SWTOR Jedi High Council. Of this list, Nikil Nobil, Wens Aleusis, Giffis Fane, and Oric Traless do not appear in the game as far as I know or can recall. That leaves Satele Shan, Orgus Din (KIA), Jaric Kaedan (KIA), Tol Braga (Corrupted by the Emperor), Syo Bakarn (First Son), Bela Kiwiiks (critically injured and barely able to serve), and the Jedi Consular Player.

 

One final thing to consider, from all the literature and Star Wars material, it would be I think out of character for the Sith Empire to not be fighting itself at various points. The whole Apprentice killing the Master thing is kind of a Sith way of life. It would feel really odd to me not to be fighting my Master at one point on the Empire.

 

 

[Sir_Raston]

This is all subjective.

 

You should try playing a smuggler.

 

 

 

I don't know what invasion you're referring to. Corellia succeeded from the Republic. The Empire's goal was to stop the rebellion caused by the planetary legislature's movement. The Republic's goal was to further the insurrection and re-annex the planet.

 

Taris was never invaded, just destabilized. The Empire had no plans to settle it. or conquer it. They just wanted to make sure that the Republic couldn't either. They saw the Republic's efforts to colonize it as an "insult" to Darth Malak's "Blessing" of the planet 300 years ago.

 

The Republic, however, did invade Balmorra after their financed rebellion was crushed.

 

I have a lvl 50 gunslinger and a 39 scoundrel, I've played the smuggler already. It isn't "oh noes", it is, "damn you got played sucker"

[Goretzu]

I don't know what invasion you're referring to. Corellia succeeded from the Republic. The Empire's goal was to stop the rebellion caused by the planetary legislature's movement. The Republic's goal was to further the insurrection and re-annex the planet.

 

You basically single handedly win the war on Correllia, then when they added the dailies it suddenly goes from that to the Empire in full retreat and you doing some damaging parting attacks.

 

It's a jarring story continuation to say the very least (arguably you shouldn't have "won" so clearly I guess).

[CabelHarn]

Speaking from an end-game daily perspective, the game favors the Empire. I have 50s on both sides.

 

Belsavis dailies -- I'd call a wash between the two factions.

Ilum dailies -- 0 doubt Empire favoritism, the Republic ones have you covering way more ground, consistently required to kill stuff unlike some of the Empire ones where you get stuff from boxes or hit some panels that with some classes can be done without fighting vs one quest for Republic has you go to timbuktoo north-central Ilum way further travel time and way more kill time to finish the quest compared to any Imperial daily.

Black Hole dailies -- This one is close since the Republic heroic is shorter/quicker, but the collection quests (quest/s plural) are worse there than Imperial side. Even if you call it a wash also Ilum pushes it over to Republic.

 

Storywise I think it's a toss up on quality of class stories. Consular story imop is the worst, Sith Inq 2nd worst so maybe Empire wins barely, but I like the JK story the most so I dont know...and a lot of that is personal preference so.

[Guamguy]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the aspect of Imperials doing mostly Elemental damage (which isn't mitigated by armor) versus the Republic players doing mostly Kinetic/Energy damage (which IS mitigated by armor). Now I personally haven't worked on any of my Imperial characters yet, but I do have people in my guild which say doing PVE content is way easier on the Imperial side do to this.

 

Also they do mention that most of the Imperial gear is better looking than most of the Republic stuff, but once again I'm going off what my guildies have told me not through personal experience

[Majspuffen]

The republic has ten times more alien-speech than the Empire, which might make sense but I personally hate listening to the aliens. Sometimes an alien is supposed to sound upset and sometimes the text might indicate that the alien is a bit energetic... and sure, the text might sell that but the voice acting certainly does not.

 

On Tatooine there's a Selkath that's apparently upset. All you're hearing is "slafs slafs slafs" and then your character can say, quite firmly, "stop screaming!" ... but the alien wasn't screaming at all.

 

On Corellia there's an alien shouting threats to the imperials but all you hear is "yadda yadda watta wompa."

 

I might be overly sensetive about this but all the damn alien speech in the republic causes me, personally, to favour the empire. It feels like they've put more effort into the Empire. Take a look at Ilum; the republic gets alien-speech from every. Single. Quest giver. The empire gets alien-speech from one and droid beeping from another, then the rest are properly voiced. Take a look at the black hole. The Empire gets a dialogue for the HC4, the republic has to pick up the quest from the terminal. Inside the HC4 phase the Empire gets to hear Torvix panic etc, whereas it's completely silent for the republic.

 

The republic was only really favoured during the Rakghoul event. The Empire needed to travel much, much more than the republic due to the location of the daily quests. The Republic literally had speeder points taking them where they needed to go whereas the Empire would have to travel across half of the areas to reach them.

 

That's my wall of text!

Edited August 30, 2012 by Majspuffen

[patchew]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the aspect of Imperials doing mostly Elemental damage (which isn't mitigated by armor) versus the Republic players doing mostly Kinetic/Energy damage (which IS mitigated by armor). Now I personally haven't worked on any of my Imperial characters yet, but I do have people in my guild which say doing PVE content is way easier on the Imperial side do to this.

 

Also they do mention that most of the Imperial gear is better looking than most of the Republic stuff, but once again I'm going off what my guildies have told me not through personal experience

 

 

gods no, doing PVE on pub side is infinitely easier. i have 50s on both and its a cake-walk on Pub side. Not once had i to ask for help on Pub side, not once. the companions are also a lot better, they seem to take very little healing.

Meh, the imp side gear is blech to me. i prefer the Pub gear cos it reminds me of the films more. Imp gear is just so many faceless helmets and spiky things ... yawnzors.

[Caminari]

It was asked earlier in the thread but never answered; where do you see the stuff they've started advertising for the cartel coins whatsit?

[akdonkey]

I think the Republic Trooper has the best looking Armors! Troopers and I admit a few Bounty hunter Armors are the only thing that looks Star Wars.

[tausser]

Has it been mentioned that non-healer Imps get 3 healing skills while their Rep counterparts do not?

[RazielHex]

You basically single handedly win the war on Correllia, then when they added the dailies it suddenly goes from that to the Empire in full retreat and you doing some damaging parting attacks.

 

It's a jarring story continuation to say the very least (arguably you shouldn't have "won" so clearly I guess).

 

It factors in the succession of Malgus. Malgus' fleet decimates the Republic around Ilum, but when it is destroyed, it in turn obliterates much of the Empire's forces as well (your side fighting your side means your side always loses twice as much). It is explained that the Empire had to pull the majority of their peacekeeping forces out of Corellia (from Darth Decimus) and focus them solely on the Unknown Regions towards Grand Moff Regus' battallions at Ilum to stop Malgus before more and more of the Empire joined him. So the Republic took advantage, and caused insurrection to the point that Corellia rejoined the Republic. The Black Hole district is to make that annexation useless by depleting it's one natural resource important for Galactic Fleets: Hypermatter refining.

 

Has it been mentioned that non-healer Imps get 3 healing skills while their Rep counterparts do not?

 

This isn't true and you know it's not true.

[Ricktur]

another indication that the empire is favored.

 

EASTER EGGS.

 

anyone been to the bridge ofthe ziost shadow? there is a cool little Empire Strikes Back easter egg on it.

 

little things like that just tell me the devs had more fun with the empire