Remove the Lightside/Darkside restrictions on color crystals.

[Garisi]

Actually, I think we're missing the larger point.

 

The primary purpose of the Alignment stat, apparently, is to restrict the types of equipment available to a character. That's the real failure - not that we have limited equipment, but that the Alignment stat isn't used for much more than that.

 

There should be abilities, not equipment, that are limited by or restricted to a specific level of the Alignment stat, light or dark. Interactions with NPCs should be affected by the Alignment stat. There are a number of gameplay mechanics that could've been influenced by, limited by, or enabled by the value of the Alignment stat. The idea that, of all the things BioWare could do with the Alignment stat, they chose to limit equipment by alignment is, indeed, silly.

 

I don't want to see lightsaber colors, of all things, limited by the Alignment stat - indeed, I'd much rather see lightsaber colors a function of the Artifice skill, in which desirable colors would be more difficult to obtain through crafting or exploration.

 

Not bad ideas at all. It's important to bear in mind that things like that are a lot of work, though. Not just VO for dialogue choices, or reworking all restricted gear, or bug testing alignment based decisions, or creating/altering/bug testing/balancing alignment based powers, but all of those things in addition to the bug testing/balancing/VO work for the game as it was.. SWTOR would've been months, if not years, later releasing.

 

I don't know if the majority would want to sit for that. I wouldn't, even though I'd love to have it. I'm with you on the crystals, at least. That's dumb.

 

 

Edit; in fact, we could compound the complications by stipulating that a dark side jedi wouldn't use the same dark side powers as a dark side sith. Or, that a dark side jedi is more like a grey jedi, and deserves his own powers. Would that be shared with light side sith? Would sith be locked out from lightside powers? They would probably mirror the powers, then. Would that even be worth waiting for? etc.

Fun ideas anyway.

Edited December 27, 2011 by Garisi

[Sabarok]

Edit; in fact, we could compound the complications by stipulating that a dark side jedi wouldn't use the same dark side powers as a dark side sith. Or, that a dark side jedi is more like a grey jedi, and deserves his own powers. Would that be shared with light side sith? Would sith be locked out from lightside powers? They would probably mirror the powers, then. Would that even be worth waiting for? etc.

Fun ideas anyway.

 

The confusion comes from the fact that the Jedi perceive a Light Side and a Dark Side of the force, but the alignment also uses the terms light & dark. The darkest Jedi is still lighter than the lightest Sith. This is different than in KOTOR where the alignment bar did measure the force affinity.

 

In the pre-story for KOTOR, there was a war. Some jedis felt that war was innapropriate. These were the light aligned Jedi. Others felt that the Republic must be defended and went to war. These were dark aligned Jedi. Some of those dark aligned jedi eventually fell and became Sith, but until that point, they were still Jedi and loyal to the Republic, and even though they made the "dark" choice to go to war, other Jedi still treated them as Jedi.

 

Not allowing these Jedi to wield green & blue doesn't make sense to me, and not allowing wiser Sith to wield red sabers also doesn't make sense.

 

Let us not forget that the same alignment bar that the Jedi & Sith use is also used by the non-force using classes. It measures morality, not affinity. This isn't the same alignment bar as KOTOR. Think of it this way:

 

Let us create a fictional universal alignment bar that encompases all factions. On this bar, +20,000 will be the purest of the light, and -20,000 will be the purest of the dark. This span covers 40,000 points, but each faction only has 20,000. The Republic have the light half, and the Sith have the dark half. Since it's not possible for characters to change factions, each side had half of their alignment bar chopped off, and the remaining was recalibrated so that the 0 point was really at the 10,000 mark.

 

When Jedi Anakin fell to the dark side, it was because his Republic dark points went below -10,000 and he switched over and became a +10,000 light Sith. Palpatine sent him to kill younglings because it would rack up more dark points.

[AJediKnight]

The confusion comes from the fact that the Jedi perceive a Light Side and a Dark Side of the force, but the alignment also uses the terms light & dark. The darkest Jedi is still lighter than the lightest Sith. This is different than in KOTOR where the alignment bar did measure the force affinity.

 

In the pre-story for KOTOR, there was a war. Some jedis felt that war was innapropriate. These were the light aligned Jedi. Others felt that the Republic must be defended and went to war. These were dark aligned Jedi. Some of those dark aligned jedi eventually fell and became Sith, but until that point, they were still Jedi and loyal to the Republic, and even though they made the "dark" choice to go to war, other Jedi still treated them as Jedi.

 

Not allowing these Jedi to wield green & blue doesn't make sense to me, and not allowing wiser Sith to wield red sabers also doesn't make sense.

 

Let us not forget that the same alignment bar that the Jedi & Sith use is also used by the non-force using classes. It measures morality, not affinity. This isn't the same alignment bar as KOTOR. Think of it this way:

 

Let us create a fictional universal alignment bar that encompases all factions. On this bar, +20,000 will be the purest of the light, and -20,000 will be the purest of the dark. This span covers 40,000 points, but each faction only has 20,000. The Republic have the light half, and the Sith have the dark half. Since it's not possible for characters to change factions, each side had half of their alignment bar chopped off, and the remaining was recalibrated so that the 0 point was really at the 10,000 mark.

 

When Jedi Anakin fell to the dark side, it was because his Republic dark points went below -10,000 and he switched over and became a +10,000 light Sith. Palpatine sent him to kill younglings because it would rack up more dark points.

 

Let's not tarnish the films by associating them with this absolutely obnoxious system.

[konstan]

Where are the purple crystal lightsabers!!

[KaosPeppers]

Where are the purple crystal lightsabers!!

 

Only Sam Jackson's account is allowed one.

[Toweleeeie]

I dont see why people want more restrictions.

 

Without restrictions light/dark choices would not matter. Plus it is immersion breaking for some of us.

[KaosPeppers]

Without restrictions light/dark choices would not matter. Plus it is immersion breaking for some of us.

 

Its imersion breaking for me to have to use a red saber as a JEDI, who even his darkest choices are "lighter" than a lightside sith.

 

Also breaks immersion to not be able to use a red saber because my sith isnt a *******.

Edited December 27, 2011 by KaosPeppers

[KaosPeppers]

This floated to the bottom with all the people comparing this to wow.

[Kilanth]

Ive been playing my Sith Juggernaut exclusive to lightside and am currently using the red mod-able lightsaber you get for completing Act 1.

 

When I opened the mod window it shows the crystal requires Dark 1 or higher but that doesn't change the fact that I can equip the lightsaber.

 

Am I missing something here?

 

edit: not that I disagree with the OP, I think color crystals shouldn't be a limited choice

Edited December 31, 2011 by Kilanth

[Enako]

Lore this Lore that. Please note SWTOR is part of the expanded universe as such if your knowledge of what is or is not lore if just the movies you will find that the EU is strange and has quite a few exceptions to what you might believe is Lore. You can blame Lucas for that as he officially signed a bunch of stuff into canon with out really paying it much attention years ago.

 

and expanded universe is a whole load of flying crap. imperial admirals falling in love, HIDING IN BLACK HOLES to escape pursuit, emperor moving planets with force ..........

 

excuse me but i dont need crap that has been written by various 3rd party authors to make money in my game. period.

 

at the point a jedi turns dark, his saber turns red. this is the movies. and thats that.

[MeshJedi]

Locking crystals to faction doesn't make any sense and would limit roleplaying. there would be no logical reason why one side couldn't use one color.

 

while the lore may not currently support it, locking to light and dark side makes a lot more sense. because then you can say that green and blue crystals are attuned to the light side of the force and won't work for darksiders, and visa versa.

 

it's not a silly restriction, it's a silly restriction to complain about. if you want to be a sith with blue or green, do like I did with min, go light sided.

 

I'd rather have it this way and at least have the option to have green and blue, than have it completely locked, OR have everyone picking sabers wildly, the majority of sith SHOULD have red or yellow

[KaosPeppers]

Ive been playing my Sith Juggernaut exclusive to lightside and am currently using the red mod-able lightsaber you get for completing Act 1.

 

When I opened the mod window it shows the crystal requires Dark 1 or higher but that doesn't change the fact that I can equip the lightsaber.

 

Am I missing something here?

 

edit: not that I disagree with the OP, I think color crystals shouldn't be a limited choice

 

Dont unequip that saber........

[Mechavomit]

at the point a jedi turns dark, his saber turns red. this is the movies. and thats that.

Where is that in the movies?

 

And for the record, yes, there are certain special crystals that evil forceusers couldn't use. But those are really special ones. I would assume, that random Jedi just have ordinary crystals.

I hate it that my light sided Jugg won't be able to use a red saber like a normal sith.

[KaosPeppers]

and expanded universe is a whole load of flying crap. imperial admirals falling in love, HIDING IN BLACK HOLES to escape pursuit, emperor moving planets with force ..........

 

excuse me but i dont need crap that has been written by various 3rd party authors to make money in my game. period.

 

at the point a jedi turns dark, his saber turns red. this is the movies. and thats that.

 

 

The game is expanded universe.Anakin Skywalker massacres the Jedi, yet his saber is still blue when fighting Obi-Wan on Mustafar.

[PadawanWilson]

Actually I remember one Star Wars game on the old playstaion (think it was the phantom menace) where you could be some female jedi who had a red lightsaber..

[Nichos_Ketra]

The game is expanded universe.Anakin Skywalker massacres the Jedi, yet his saber is still blue when fighting Obi-Wan on Mustafar.

 

You forgot to mention that he also slaughtered all the younglings at the temple as well. That's at least a 10x multiplier for Darkside points right there.

 

More on topic, the previously stated example of Exar Kun for why blue/green and red shouldn't be alignment exclusive is probably one of the best examples I can think of. He was a bad, bad dude, yet still was somehow able to wield a blue bladed lightsaber. What dark side level did he have again, to use in-game mechanics? He must have been at least at 8000 below true neutral.

Edited December 31, 2011 by Nichos_Ketra

[Gvaz]

What if I'm a gay sith who happens to like the color blue?

 

Come on Bioware, there is no reason for this stupid stupid stupid restriction.

[RollingDeep]

You stupid bioware:mad: I want to do w/e I want whenever I want it. I wanna be able to be dark sided but wear light sided gear. I wanna be a dark Jedi but have a blue/green light saber. You did a bad job bioware in having restrictions and not letting me do w/e I want in game. I can't look the way I want to and so now I am quitting. This game will fail if you don't let me do w/e I want w/e I want!

[Starsunder]

and expanded universe is a whole load of flying crap. imperial admirals falling in love, HIDING IN BLACK HOLES to escape pursuit, emperor moving planets with force ..........

 

excuse me but i dont need crap that has been written by various 3rd party authors to make money in my game. period.

 

at the point a jedi turns dark, his saber turns red. this is the movies. and thats that.

 

 

You sir are an idiot.

 

The color of the saber has NOTHING to do with a Jedi or Sith's affinity to the force.

 

It has to do with the color of the crystal used to create the light saber.

 

The reason a Sith's Crystal is generally red is because it is created Artificially while tweeking can be done to create a different color crystal this way, it is more time consuming on the part of the creator. Such as when Luke makes his Green saber for ROTJ.

 

Here for the people who are talking out of the bums.

 

Let me google that for you.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lightsaber_crystal

Edited December 31, 2011 by Starsunder

[Arvalo]

The light side dark side restrictions on crystals are fine IMO. If you want blue don't be an evil douche.

 

What the NEED to fix is the availability of purple on Republic side. Imps can get it at 50 pretty easy, still no confirmed way to get it on republic at all yet.

[KaosPeppers]

You stupid bioware:mad: I want to do w/e I want whenever I want it. I wanna be able to be dark sided but wear light sided gear. I wanna be a dark Jedi but have a blue/green light saber. You did a bad job bioware in having restrictions and not letting me do w/e I want in game. I can't look the way I want to and so now I am quitting. This game will fail if you don't let me do w/e I want w/e I want!

 

You fail in the most ignorant of ways.

[KaosPeppers]

The light side dark side restrictions on crystals are fine IMO. If you want blue don't be an evil douche.

 

What the NEED to fix is the availability of purple on Republic side. Imps can get it at 50 pretty easy, still no confirmed way to get it on republic at all yet.

 

 

That kind of thought will lead to the lightside darkside system becoming more of a grind then it already is.

[Valkirus]

No.....bad idea to remove the restrictions. Enough said.

[newwb]

there shouldnt be color crystals at all, or at least they shouldnt have stats. just let us choose our color. at the very least, blue shouldnt be restricted, green and red is understandable, but not blue

[drosalion]

No.....bad idea to remove the restrictions. Enough said.

 

No its not enough said - how is it a bad idea to remove it? I'd love to hear your reasoning.

 

The problem with the color restrictions is not something to do with lore or anything like that (although if you are going by lore and things like that then it makes no sense whatsoever and should still be removed). The problem is the way the system works and how it 'rewards' you.

 

Think about any other levelling mechanic in the game (Player level, Valor, Social level, Companion affection, etc). All of them reward you with something additional when you reach a certain point. For example hit level 50 and you unlock the ability to wear level 50 gear. Hit Valor 65 and you're rewarded with new gear/items you didnt have access to. Hit Social III and be rewarded with new gear unlocks..etc.

 

Now think about what happens when you hit Lightside 1 - you're not rewarded but in fact PUNISHED. You can no longer have access to that red crystal you started out with as a Sith (and being a Sith, having a red crystal makes the most sense. Seriously - who thinks its a good idea to EVER restrict a sith from having the most iconic red crystal?). This punishment doesnt occur in any other level system. If you're Social IV you still can equip the gear that is Social II. If you're level 50 you can still wear level 25 gear. The game doesnt suddenly go "Oh sorry you've gone too far social you can no longer wear that older piece of gear". Likewise with valor, etc.

 

Alignment is the only levelling system that punishes you for reaching higher levels. This is the main problem with it.