cashogy_reborn Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 look, nobody is saying to get rid of factions. what i am suggesting at least, is that the factions have more interaction. i should be able to inspect an opponents gear in a warzone. why we cant already do that is just odd tbh. i should be able to send tells freely to the other faction. i should be able to add them to my friends list. we should have a neutral fleet. interaction with the other faction on your server breeds a greater sense of community, and competition. yes you will have the a**hats that will take the trash talk to an un-acceptable level, but there is an /ignore function in the game for a reason. for the rest of us, a little bit of competitive banter is good for the soul i just do not see any benefit in separating factions entirely the way bioware has. youve essentially split the population of your server in half from the get-go. in a genre where having a strong community is essentially the backbone of being successful, that is really not a good gameplan. but again, this discussion is almost as pointless as all of those Merc/Mando threads. what we have is pretty much set in stone, and if the devs do make changes it will be 100% without our input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arlanon Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 makeb is going to be swtor's dalaran both factions will mingle there i assume since both factions and all characters of all classes have the exact same storyline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinlynn Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 The major design flaw was that BW made toons faction locked. Players should be allowed to change faction at any time. At least once their story is complete and they reach lvl 50. The engine is the real pink elephant in the room. Cannot call this game star wars without factions and without the galactic war. Overall I have to agree that EA / BW have totally failed in this regard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryRow Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Oh my god I agree with Quinnlyn. Please kill me. I would really really really like to be able to do is switch faction. My main and my guild are on the Rep side. I already have a scoundrel. Why can't I enjoy the Agent storyline with a sniper and get a gunslinger for my troubles? I made a sorc for the fun of it, but now that he's 50 he's mostly just a crafting slave. Would love to have a sage instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkiestj Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 i do agree tho that the ship has sailed on the faction mechanics changing. we are stuck with what we've got, and faction in this game means nothing. your guild is basically your faction. mostly agree. For PvP WZ, our guild is indeed our faction. For PvE stories, faction does matter. I'm fine with the faction system as is but I would not balk at some improved communication features (e.g. friending opposite faction, mail to opposite faction). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSaberMaster Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Considering that the majority of the Imp class story quests are Imp versus Imp, I really don't see why anybody has a problem with same faction fighting. You're playing within the context of what the game is. I know, I know. This is the PvP forums!!!! Not RP!11!!!1!. Well. As soon as you opened your mouth about hating fighting your own faction and that we should be simulating a war between Imps and Pubs, you just became a roleplayer lol. But as far as the factions being a non-factor, I agree. There are no advantages/disadvantages going either way as they are mirror images of each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cashogy_reborn Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 mostly agree. For PvP WZ, our guild is indeed our faction. For PvE stories, faction does matter. I'm fine with the faction system as is but I would not balk at some improved communication features (e.g. friending opposite faction, mail to opposite faction). you can already mail the opposing faction i think. i know you can at least send mail to alts of the other faction, since ive done that myself a ton. but friends list, tells/whispers, and some global channels (really global ones, are there even any in this game?) should have x-faction functionality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totaltrash Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 (edited) I know it's already been said, but aren't the factions the essence of Star Wars? I mean, take that faction seperation away, and what are u left with as far as story in the game.... It would just be completely generic at that point. Maybe if they bought in the yuuzahn vong for some flashpoints, ops, or a future planet expansion, but other than that fighting alongside a Sorc with my Vanguard would kind of break it for me. Factions are the "Essence of Star Wars"? Yes. Factions are the "Essence of SWTOR"? No. You have to differentiate between the Star Wars story and the actual game Bioware created. Since launch, BW made some irreversible choices with the factions and we are stuck with now - like it or not. The other thing is, I think allowing more free communication and mingling of the factions would really bring out the worst in people. Having spent a good bit of time on Ilum for the gree event and witnessed the ganking and forced flagging in the PvE area, the jumping of solo players or other groups for no reason other than to grief in the PvP area, and the animosity and hate in gen chat within the same faction, I can only imagine what it would be like with both factions. A while ago I was in a CW wz as Imp and one guy on our team was telling our movements and giving our nodes to his Pub guild over voice chat. Not only did he admit to it, he was taunting us with it. For every guy who admits to it, there are probably 10 who do it secretly. I believe it is much better to allow open interaction than deal with covert collusion. Again, I agree with the OP and some of the comments in this thread - let's make the best out of the status quo. Edited March 20, 2013 by Totaltrash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArchangelLBC Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 look, nobody is saying to get rid of factions. what i am suggesting at least, is that the factions have more interaction. i should be able to inspect an opponents gear in a warzone. why we cant already do that is just odd tbh. i should be able to send tells freely to the other faction. i should be able to add them to my friends list. we should have a neutral fleet. interaction with the other faction on your server breeds a greater sense of community, and competition. yes you will have the a**hats that will take the trash talk to an un-acceptable level, but there is an /ignore function in the game for a reason. for the rest of us, a little bit of competitive banter is good for the soul i just do not see any benefit in separating factions entirely the way bioware has. youve essentially split the population of your server in half from the get-go. in a genre where having a strong community is essentially the backbone of being successful, that is really not a good gameplan. but again, this discussion is almost as pointless as all of those Merc/Mando threads. what we have is pretty much set in stone, and if the devs do make changes it will be 100% without our input. If you think about it there's an ingame mechanic already in nar shadda since the hutts enforce neutrality. There if nowhere else factions should have more interaction. Heck it used to be the only place you could buy from the GTN for both factions. So make a new hutt fleet, or maybe a new "casino" orbiting Nar Shadda or something, put the shuttles for Operations and Flashpoints, and put all the level 55 vendors there in 2.0 to basically force people to go there. It's already called Rise of the Hutt Cartel. Within the new casino you can form Operations groups with opposite faction and enter an Op, but not queue for warzones while grouped with an opposite faction member. I think that would be pretty workable. Or just do what I've just suggested but with Makeb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urantia Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 (edited) Personally I miss how it was in the beginning. The lines were pretty clear {save maybe making toons in both factions on one server [like a poster above, I never liked that]}. Now the lines are so blurred it is rediculous....and with the CM we can now dress our Jedi as Sith or Imp. Officers etc {RP notions aside}....and vice versa. I have mixed feeling on what the OP desires though. If anything I would prefer a more defined "border". Like some above, I also hate the Imp v Imp/Rep v Rep crap. Never liked it. Since all I do anymore is PvP, I wish I did not feel like I was just logging onto another toon with different "decals". As another poster so eloquently stated lol "that ship has sailed". Now when we play we must accept this game has no "soul"....and is a generic carnaval of fluff and meaningless factions. Before legacy mail...I never intended to make any imp alrs on the same server {started with Rep toons [Corellian Run]}...but when we could mail to imp alts...of course I made some. I could have still stuck to one faction per server on my own, but why bother when I could just mail Imps whatever they needed and not have to build 2 seperate infrastructures? I would not go so far as to say the Factions are obsolete, but i do feel you OP....it certainly feel meaningless these days. Edited March 21, 2013 by Urantia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrekxxx Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 I know I'm gonna take heat for posting this, but I think it's time to get rid of the faction separation. We can have both factions on the same account on the same server We even need to have both factions on the same server just to get HK We can craft, buy/sell for both factions via GTN We have same-faction warzones pretty much since launch We have free-for-all world pvp zones like Outlaws and Ilum The whole Gree event is free-for-all with Imps killing Imps and Pubs killing Pubs. And we all know that big faction battles are never gonna happen in SWTOR b/c of the engine problems. Most big guilds have chapters on both sides and even some of the smaller ones have them now too. In my guild, we all share the same vent, sometimes even when we are opposed in the same warzone. We craft for both sides and we get mats from both sides for it. We all got lots of friends on both sides of the server. Reality is, that the same players play on both sides of every server. So why keep all the inconveniences? No friends list that includes both factions? Can't mail to the other faction (unless it's your own legacy)? Can't trade with them directly? Can't whisper to them? Here is an idea that I would think helps everyone. Mixed faction warzones (Imps and Pubs on the same teams) It would speed up the queues: Wzs would be filled as they are queued rather than trying to get both faction teams filled separately. It would also help pugs! Right now, at certain times of the day, Pubs dominate and other times Imps do (not talking about premades, just quality of pug players). Mixed wzs would even that all out, giving pugs a better chance to have a balanced match. Mixed faction ranked would also be much easier to organize. For example, if your Imp premade is missing a geared healer and a guildie has a scoundrel, boom premade good to go! Really, same goes for PVE too: The ops are already faction neutral, so if your raid is missing a tank and someone has one with the opposite faction, he could just use it and tank the ops. I know the RP'ers will be opposed, and I don't mean to ruin their fun, so don't hate me! By all means, keep the factions separated for RP servers, and also keep it for 1-49 class stories. But the fact is that most subscribers are on PVP and PVE servers and don't RP. For most of us the faction separation is just a big annoyance after 50 and serves no real purpose anymore. awesome idea! 10/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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