Question About dark/light alignment.

[Chris-red]

Hi All,

 

I have been playing for a few months now, I have a level ~35 Jedi Knight and a level ~10 Bounty Hunter.

 

With My Jedi I have gone lighter than light and am a paragon of virtue, so I pick every light side option.

 

With my bounty hunter I want to go a more awkward route. He isn't a sadist, but is mercenary and in it for the credits, but never breaks his word. However I've noticed I'm about 50/50 with light and dark options.

i.e.

 

I get a mission to kill someone he begs for his life or whatever says he has a family, I don't care I'm killing him. = Dark Side Points

 

I get a mission to kill someone 'bad' and he offers me more credits not to, I kill him anyway = Lightside points

 

My question is how will this affect me in the long run, is being middle of the road with regards to light and dark a hindrance?

 

As an aside has anyone ever played a light sith? how would that work!

[DogeDandolo]

Welcome to the game

 

Your alignment with the light / dark side of the Force has at best tangential influence. There are a few relics and lightsabres you can't equip without having a certain rank in one direction or the other, but skipping those won't hinder you in the slightest and none of the endgame gear has alignment requirements. In terms of story, you'll receive a few nods if you've gone strongly either way (that is, you're at least Light I or Dark I), but it won't hinder you.

 

One of the best bits of advice in this regards would probably be to turn off the LS/DS icons on your conversation wheel -- don't go with what the icons say, but follow your gut feeling and the character you have established so far. For example, I played my mercenary quite similar to you -- a decent person when off the clock, but a consummate professional when contracted to do a job.

 

I've played two of my three inquisitors and one of my two warriors mostly light-sided. It's definitely easier on the Inquisitor, because the backstory of the class (without spoilers) is that you were a slave until discovered to be Force-sensitive. So joining the Sith was not by choice, you just happened to be discovered by the Sith Empire. Whereas a Force-sensitive born in the Republic would most likely join the Jedi. In addition, the story gives you a lot of opportunities to pass your compassion and mercy off as cunning mind games, as well as elaborate on your personal philosophy in companion conversations. Warriors are a bit more difficult, in my opinion, because every bit of dialogue just screams "honourable warrior out for glory and Jedi blood" to me.

[Essence_of_Light]

Welcome to the game

 

Your alignment with the light / dark side of the Force has at best tangential influence. There are a few relics and lightsabres you can't equip without having a certain rank in one direction or the other, but skipping those won't hinder you in the slightest and none of the endgame gear has alignment requirements. In terms of story, you'll receive a few nods if you've gone strongly either way (that is, you're at least Light I or Dark I), but it won't hinder you.

 

One of the best bits of advice in this regards would probably be to turn off the LS/DS icons on your conversation wheel -- don't go with what the icons say, but follow your gut feeling and the character you have established so far. For example, I played my mercenary quite similar to you -- a decent person when off the clock, but a consummate professional when contracted to do a job.

 

I've played two of my three inquisitors and one of my two warriors mostly light-sided. It's definitely easier on the Inquisitor, because the backstory of the class (without spoilers) is that you were a slave until discovered to be Force-sensitive. So joining the Sith was not by choice, you just happened to be discovered by the Sith Empire. Whereas a Force-sensitive born in the Republic would most likely join the Jedi. In addition, the story gives you a lot of opportunities to pass your compassion and mercy off as cunning mind games, as well as elaborate on your personal philosophy in companion conversations. Warriors are a bit more difficult, in my opinion, because every bit of dialogue just screams "honourable warrior out for glory and Jedi blood" to me.

 

TL;DR - There are some relics and lightsabers which require a certain alignment, but hardly matter.

[JediQuaker]

As an aside has anyone ever played a light sith? how would that work!

Because of the 12x XP bonus I recently started a Sith (Assassin), now level 54, doing Makeb. I'm usually a Rep player (9 Rep toons), but I had often thought I'd like to do a real Imp character (I have a level 13 BH HK part finder).

So, I had originally thought to make a sexy evil (but good looking) female Sith in skimpy clothes (the result of too much recreational substances, I admit).

But, I was enjoying it so much that I very early switched her to a non-skimpy outfit*, and went mostly light side choices for the same reason you did. She's not a goody-2-shoes - she kills those that get in her way - but overall, because of her choices, she is almost Light 1.

I can't say for sure, how that might differ from going DS, but she does seem to be on a crusade to make the Sith empire stop needlessly fighting the Republic.

 

* Vrook Lamar's chest piece with various other pieces.

Edited November 25, 2014 by JediQuaker

[Sharzade]

I'm not bothering too much with the alignment shifts. I'm walking a line of partly keeping myself happy, and maybe sometimes pleasing my companion. I'm glad alignment doesn't impact equipment too much.

[Dragondog]

I've played most of my Imperial characters light side and have had no problem with that. Receiving the same final titles and positions as DS characters would have.

[Yezzan]

If you are playing a Sith Warrior, go light side. It's an interesting twist to the prevailing sith paradigm in the empire. my first Sith Warrior was Dark side even though I made some light side choices to avoid fights (yes, if you go light side, you avoid 50% of the fights ) .

 

Anyways, a light side sith is certainly fun and interesting. Throwing back Jedi philosophy at them and being a champion of peace will confound many of your enemies and make them defenseless against you.

 

A light side Sith is an oddity to both the Jedi and the Sith. You achieve your objectives far more effectively that those who go around mindlessly killing people.

[Chris-red]

Thanks for the advice all, I'll continue as I am then. Turning off the LS/DS Icons sounds like a good idea too I'll do that!

 

I'm sure this has been brought up many times, but what is the best class for story/gameplay. I might start a 3rd Character soon!

[Yezzan]

Thanks for the advice all, I'll continue as I am then. Turning off the LS/DS Icons sounds like a good idea too I'll do that!

 

I'm sure this has been brought up many times, but what is the best class for story/gameplay. I might start a 3rd Character soon!

 

There is no answer to that question. Everyone have their own preference, and it's an endless debate. My advice is to play all the different classes so that you can unlock the legacy buffs.

 

So if you have a level 55 Sith Assassin, put off playing a Jedi Shadow/ Sage or Sith Sorcerer until you have played a the other 3 classes.

 

Turning off the LS/DS icons will mean that all your toons will be nuetral . I did that with my Trooper and I regetted it because it lends itself to mediocrity. Pick a side and stick to it. The occasional LS/Ds choice can be easily forgiven.

 

 

EDIT: If you already have a Jedi Knight and Bounty Hunter. I suggest playing an Imperial Agent and then an inquisitor. There reason being; therei s some tie-in with the Voss part of the story line progression. You will understand why the voss are they way they are towards the empire and the Republic

Edited November 26, 2014 by Yezzan

[DogeDandolo]

Thanks for the advice all, I'll continue as I am then. Turning off the LS/DS Icons sounds like a good idea too I'll do that!

 

I'm sure this has been brought up many times, but what is the best class for story/gameplay. I might start a 3rd Character soon!

 

There's no clear answer to that question. As the above poster said, it's probably a good idea to get one of every mechanical base class each. I.e. one each of Knight/warrior, consular/inquisitors, smuggler/agent, trooper/hunter. From what you've already done, I recommend going for an Agent—>Operative next. Imo, that's the best story and some of the most fun gameplay in the game.

[Fidelicatessen]

Turning off the LS/DS icons will mean that all your toons will be nuetral . I did that with my Trooper and I regetted it because it lends itself to mediocrity. Pick a side and stick to it. The occasional LS/Ds choice can be easily forgiven.

 

 

There is nothing mediocre about choosing dialog options that make sense for your character instead of farming either dark side or light side points. In fact, that's the opposite of mediocre--your character will shine (in your eyes, which are all that matter).

 

Choose dialog options that suit your character. If they are DS or LS, it ultimately matters little. What's mediocre is choosing all dark side or all light side regardless of who your character is.

[DogeDandolo]

There is nothing mediocre about choosing dialog options that make sense for your character instead of farming either dark side or light side points. In fact, that's the opposite of mediocre--your character will shine (in your eyes, which are all that matter).

 

Choose dialog options that suit your character. If they are DS or LS, it ultimately matters little. What's mediocre is choosing all dark side or all light side regardless of who your character is.

 

Agreed. My mara ended up at just -900 points (mind, this was before 12xp, so with all the sidequests included), and he's still one of my favourite characters in terms of RP.

[vathouille]

If you are playing a Sith Warrior, go light side. It's an interesting twist to the prevailing sith paradigm in the empire. my first Sith Warrior was Dark side even though I made some light side choices to avoid fights (yes, if you go light side, you avoid 50% of the fights )

 

It's an interesting approach, but I'll offer one that I found very satisfying : being evil, but not stupid evil.

 

Here is an example :

My Juggernaut embraces the dark side, there is no doubt here. He believes that the strong shall rule the weak, that strength and power should be used to improve one's condition and that if you are not strong enough to get something, then you don't deserve to have it. That being said, he does not believe in senseless cruelty, as it achieves nothing. Why slaughter those that could serve you? He also has a warrior's honor that makes him avoid killing non combatants if possible. That being said, he remains a Sith and his emotions run strong. Revenge being an acceptable motivation, those who have harmed him in any way may enjoy a slow death ...

 

In terms of gameplay, it gives you plenty of justifications to mix LS and DS choices and step away from the "puppy killer" Sith warrior.

 

Advice has already been given, but if you want to immerse yourself in the storyline, disable LS/DS choices and take a while to think about your character's ethics and the way he sees the various factions (Rep/Imps, Sith/Jedi, outlaws of all kinds, Hutts ...)

[DogeDandolo]

Don't kid yourself, no one likes Hutts. Not even Hutts like Hutts, that's why they keep around Twi'leks.

[vathouille]

Don't kid yourself, no one likes Hutts. Not even Hutts like Hutts, that's why they keep around Twi'leks.

 

True enough, but like them or not, very few dare to mess with them! While the game does not provide many interactions with hutts, classes like Smuggler, Bounty Hunter and, to a lesser degree, the agent would probably less reluctant to deal with the slugs than the others. As a matter of fact, IA and BH do start their careers on Hutta

[Chris-red]

There is no answer to that question. Everyone have their own preference, and it's an endless debate. My advice is to play all the different classes so that you can unlock the legacy buffs.

 

So if you have a level 55 Sith Assassin, put off playing a Jedi Shadow/ Sage or Sith Sorcerer until you have played a the other 3 classes.

 

Turning off the LS/DS icons will mean that all your toons will be nuetral . I did that with my Trooper and I regetted it because it lends itself to mediocrity. Pick a side and stick to it. The occasional LS/Ds choice can be easily forgiven.

 

 

EDIT: If you already have a Jedi Knight and Bounty Hunter. I suggest playing an Imperial Agent and then an inquisitor. There reason being; therei s some tie-in with the Voss part of the story line progression. You will understand why the voss are they way they are towards the empire and the Republic

 

 

Forgive me, what a toon?

 

I'm confused I thought turning off the LS DS stuff just removed it from behind the various speech options? Does it actually remove alignment from your character?

[Chris-red]

Forgive me, what a toon?

 

I'm confused I thought turning off the LS DS stuff just removed it from behind the various speech options? Does it actually remove alignment from your character?

 

Ignore second question i've read the rest of the thread!

[Ridickilis]

Ignore second question i've read the rest of the thread!

 

Well to the first part; what's a "toon"? It's mmospeak/slang for "your in game character".

[vathouille]

Forgive me, what a toon?

 

Toon = character

 

As for the, turn alignment indicators on or off, my view of it :

 

Being Light V or Dark V does not bring anything significant in terms of gameplay, you merely get one achievement from each and a few fancy items from the LS/DS vendors (nothing essential though), so I could not care less about it.

 

On the other hand, I found the red triangle and white star to have a negative impact on my storyline experience as I would sometimes favour the LS/DS points gain over the story (that is, until I realized that it did not matter) and removing them freed me from that. I would almost consider the option to remove affection gains/losses from the same screen if the option existed.

[Adric_the_Red]

Toon = character

 

As for the, turn alignment indicators on or off, my view of it :

 

Being Light V or Dark V does not bring anything significant in terms of gameplay, you merely get one achievement from each and a few fancy items from the LS/DS vendors (nothing essential though), so I could not care less about it.

 

On the other hand, I found the red triangle and white star to have a negative impact on my storyline experience as I would sometimes favour the LS/DS points gain over the story (that is, until I realized that it did not matter) and removing them freed me from that. I would almost consider the option to remove affection gains/losses from the same screen if the option existed.

You can disable showing companion affection gain/loss, but unlike showing the LS/DS options, it's not through Preferences. Open the Interface Editor, switch from showing the Main HUD to Conversations, then click the Converstion Rewards box, and uncheck Enable. You will no longer see the little popups showing how much your companion(s) liked or didn't like your responses.

 

And to make clear, enabling/disabling these options only changes whether or not you see them while in a conversation. You still get the LS/DS alignment points and/or affection gain or loss, according to what choices you make.

Edited November 26, 2014 by Adric_the_Red

[Yezzan]

I can guarantee you that if you follow the logical path without being influenced by the LS/DS gain on conversations, you will end up being neutral. And that's how most if not all of your characters will end up.

 

I think it's better to decide on a path for your toon and follow it, just in the same way you chose advance classes.I am not saying that you should become a mindless slave to the path you chose. If the decision doesn't make sense and is totally out of sync with your character personality, then pic the more viable option evne if it is the opposite alighment.

 

There are only few instances in the story progression where making a LS/DS choice would be way off base. And that Happens for evey class. Sometimes only one alighment choice is available but the other options relieve you of the alighment. For example, My Light side Sith warrior only had Ds options after defeating Darth Ekkage but I could avoid making the DS choice by asking the Jedi to kill Ekkage for me, which he did in order to keep me in the light.

 

I say mediocre because light and dark are the central themes in Star wars and you have to choose a path especially if you are a force user. A jedi cannot kill a Sith if the Sith surrenders, even if killing the Sith is the right/sensable thing to do. Sith don't take prisioners, full stop.

Edited November 27, 2014 by Yezzan

[DogeDandolo]

Being Jedi or Sith in this period is not a matter of choice, though.

[vathouille]

You can disable showing companion affection gain/loss, but unlike showing the LS/DS options, it's not through Preferences. Open the Interface Editor, switch from showing the Main HUD to Conversations, then click the Converstion Rewards box, and uncheck Enable. You will no longer see the little popups showing how much your companion(s) liked or didn't like your responses.

 

And to make clear, enabling/disabling these options only changes whether or not you see them while in a conversation. You still get the LS/DS alignment points and/or affection gain or loss, according to what choices you make.

 

Heh, goes to show that you can learn something new, even after leveling 8+ chars ... thanks for the tip man.

[Brittaany_Banks]

The only thing light/dark has influence on is level 1-50 gear you can equip, and a small change in conversation options. That's all. It has no application outside that.

[vathouille]

I can guarantee you that if you follow the logical path without being influenced by the LS/DS gain on conversations, you will end up being neutral. And that's how most if not all of your characters will end up.

 

I did not experience this as the chars I wanted to be LS/DS ended up as expected, though I will grant you that it was slower and definitely did not reach light/dark V by the end of a playthrough. I'd say that by going with this playstyle, my DS chars end up taking 2/3 of DS choices and 1/3 LS choice and my light chars went for 4/5 LS and 1/5 DS (this is due to the fact that there are far too many stupid evil choices to my taste)

 

I think it's better to decide on a path for your toon and follow it, just in the same way you chose advance classes.I am not saying that you should become a mindless slave to the path you chose. If the decision doesn't make sense and is totally out of sync with your character personality, then pic the more viable option even if it is the opposite alighment.

 

I'm all for choosing a path, but I say that there are more than just two! Full light and full dark are not paths to tread, but railroads to follow, and I don't find this an enjoyable experience. It's even more true for non force using classes that don't have any reason to care about LS/DS.

 

There are only few instances in the story progression where making a LS/DS choice would be way off base. And that Happens for evey class. Sometimes only one alighment choice is available but the other options relieve you of the alighment. For example, My Light side Sith warrior only had Ds options after defeating Darth Ekkage but I could avoid making the DS choice by asking the Jedi to kill Ekkage for me, which he did in order to keep me in the light.

 

That is because the moral system in swtor is highly questionable. In this specific example, letting a third party deal the killing blow without interfering is not a neutral choice, this is just being passive in front of someone killing a downed enemy. I would interpret this as Dark! True LS characters have to stand for what they believe. Now think about the same choice without being hindered by LS/DS indicators. Instead of choosing based on alignment hit, it becomes "can my character really stand aside while someone else delivers the killing blow or will he intervene?" Much more interesting in my opinion.

 

I say mediocre because light and dark are the central themes in Star wars and you have to choose a path especially if you are a force user. A jedi cannot kill a Sith if the Sith surrenders, even if killing the Sith is the right/sensable thing to do. Sith don't take prisioners, full stop.

 

Light and Dark is an important theme only if the choices you make are meaningful and hard. If it's just a matter of clicking the red of white icon, then everything is chewed and pre-digested and you only have to eat what the game regurgitates for you.

 

That's exactly why this black and white view is flawed:

 

Sith don't take prisoners? Really, then why are the inquisitors so skilled at interrogation? don't wanna include spoilers in this thread but there are so many instances in the empire storylines that contradict this statement!

 

A Jedi cannot kill a Sith if the Sith surrenders? The act seems unlikely, but who says I want to play a perfect Jedi? Perfect characters are so boring. I played LS Jedi who fell to the dark side during the course of the playthrough and I found it very interesting from a character development perspective. Sure he ended up somewhere in the middle on the LS/DS scale (as he accumulated LS points early in the game before starting to score DS points) but my enjoyment at playing the story that way far outweighs this useless bar. And the JK storyline fortunately gives you plenty of opportunity for your toon to make these seemingly innocent dark decisions that lead you to the dark side. Simple things like starting to believe that the end justifies the means, that some bad guy was really too dengerous to be left alive and that killing him was for the greater good ...

 

In the end, everyone plays the game the way he likes it and I'm certainly not begrudging you the right to do exactly that, but in find that moral choices are a bit flawed in SWTOR to begin with and that having these indicators make things even worse.

Edited November 27, 2014 by vathouille