Gear, in most MMORPGs, makes the world go 'round. For many hardcore MMO gamers, gear is the main motivation. Every action is done to get closer to the best helm or sword, to give them that edge in PvP or that extra DPS in raids. Star Wars: The Old Republic is introducing a new type of gear based on your alignment: morality gear.
Gear, or equipment, is any item that can be equipped and is distinguished from items that can only be stored in your inventory. In MMOs, gear is broken down into several tiers and classifications. They are separated by quality, usually Poor, Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Epic. A classification of "Poor" often denotes trash armor dropped by low-level mobs; this gear only offers base stats and players usually sell or destroy it. Low-level mobs often drop Common gear, which can also be crafted using basic ingredients or sold by vendors. Players earn Uncommon gear as a quest reward, craft it using uncommon ingredients or loot it from mobs in dungeons. Crafters use rare ingredients to assemble Rare gear, or players can receive it as reward for quests involving instanced dungeons or for participating in instanced PvP. Bosses in instanced dungeons and raids also drop Rare gear. Epic gear usually consists of the highest grade crafted items, or it comes from end-game, instanced PvP or raid bosses. The hardest to acquire and most sought-after items in the game usually fall into the Epic or above category.
The means for acquiring gear is another way of separating types of gear. Players can purchase crafted gear or earn gear through PvP, dungeons or raiding. Crafted gear is constructed by players who practice a particular profession using bought or collected items and then sold. Participants in instanced PVP matches and events obtain gear specifically tailored for that type of game play. Defeating mobs and bosses in instanced dungeons or through quests involving instanced dungeons is how players gain dungeon gear. Similarly, defeating raid bosses allows players to acquire raid gear.
As anyone who has played a previous BioWare game can tell you, morality is just another name for alignment. Alignment was first introduced in the table-top role-playing genre with games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Alignment is the categorization of a character's ethics and moral code. In other words, your character's alignment dictates how your character reacts to situations and how your character interacts with others. For example, let's say a situation presents itself where you have an opportunity to remove a despot king and liberate a kingdom. A good character will force the king out of his seat of power and install someone who will reign with fairness and humility. An evil character will kill the king and take his place. Some games have alignment systems that are that simple, while others, like D&D, have alignment systems that are much more complex. D&D's alignment system includes nine separate alignment categories.
SW:TOR will have an alignment system with only two categories: Light side and Dark side. Each alignment category will then be split into four, possibly five separate levels; Light I, Light II, Light III, Light IV, Light V (possibly), Dark I, Dark II, Dark III, Dark IV, and Dark V (possibly). As your character progresses through his or her story, they will encounter certain situations where they must choose a Light side option or a Dark side option. As players compound choices into one category, their alignment level in that category will increase. In other words, once enough Light side choices are made, players will be promoted from Light I to Light II. Conversely, once Light II has been reached, and Dark side choices begin to be made, the player will go back to Light I and eventually reach Dark I, Dark II, etc. Depending on the alignment level of the character, different dialogue options may open up, others may close and certain types of armor may become available to equip.
Morality gear is restricted by character alignment and can only be equipped by characters with the correct alignment tier. If you find a blaster with a Light II restriction, you can only equip it if your character is Light II or higher. These restrictions can apply to armor, weapons, relics and may even include items that are not gear, such as consumables. Crafted, PvP, dungeon and raiding gear can all have morality restrictions as well.
In the screenshot above, the Trooper Commando's character pane can be seen in full view. The alignment scale lies to the left of his gear slots and character picture. This Commando has 4000 points in the Light side and 0 in the Dark side, placing him in the Light III tier. Under that, it shows that the Commando will need 5750 points in the Light side to reach the next tier, Light IV. Looking at the cropped shots of the separate pieces of gear, you can see that each piece as an alignment restriction. Both the feet and leg armor have an alignment restriction of Light II, while the waist and wrist armor are Light I. This restriction is denoted under the level and armor type requirements.
In one of our interviews at San Diego Comic-Con 2011, Dallas Dickinson teased that alignment affects abilities.
...as you progress very far down the light side path or very far down the Dark side path, you're actually going to unlock some abilities that are only available to that side of the Force.
What is not known is how exactly the morality alignment tiers affect the player's abilities. The way Dallas described it makes it sound as if these are unique abilities. For a while now, fans have speculated that they possibly enhance damage, healing or other aspects of the class, but in the latest interview, this doesn't seem to be the case. It could suggest that with each alignment tier level, new abilities are unlocked that function as new and better ranks of previous abilities. The only problem with this is that it leaves questions unanswered. Are these abilities exclusive to a specific role, such as DPS, CC, healing, etc? If they do, then will the unique abilities for the alignments be mirrored?
If they are not, then it could present story implications and possibly force people down a path that they would have to take for gameplay reasons later down the road. However, BioWare's past comments about separating story choices from gameplay choices seems to conflict with both sides of the argument. Either way, we will not know for a while and may not even know until we get our hands on the game, depending on when BioWare discusses this feature, but you can be sure we will talk about it when it happens.
There are several reasons why morality gear is an important, exciting addition to the game. These include:
- It has been BioWare's stance that they want players to be able to tell at a glance the Advanced Class, play style, and level of any player. Morality gear adds alignment to that list.
- Morality gear has the potential to add more unique armor sets. For example, let's assume that there will be one unique end-game armor set for each Advanced Class available for each play style: crafting, PvP, and raiding. This assumption generates at least 48 different possible armor sets. If Bioware were to create variations according to character morality for each of these unique sets, keeping a base set and adding new sets for Light and Dark moralities, this would result in possibly 144 unique looking armor sets. (Assuming they don't just stack more shoulder pads on them)
- Morality armor can assist the RP (role-playing) community by making their character look the part of the stalwart hero or the evil megalomaniac.
- Morality gear can serve as motivation for players to participate in the story to gain the specific gear they like based upon appearance or performance.
In contrast, morality gear has the potential to hurt the game if its implementation is handled incorrectly. Possible negative impacts might include:
- Unless morality gear has equal stats to gear of the same level, players will be gear-driven when choosing their alignment. This could cause an imbalance in the population and players could end up looking the same.
- Guilds can discriminate against players with the "wrong" alignment based on whether alignment gear is available to a character. This issue of discrimination can also bleed into random PvP and raid groups.
- Community members might feel it is unfair if new, desirable gear is introduced in content patches or expansions, but is unavailable to them based upon their alignment choices.
Morality gear presents exciting new prospects to TOR. It can help establish your Light side Jedi Knight as an heroic keeper of the peace, or your Dark side Sith Inquisitor as an evil power monger. Just by looking at a fellow Smuggler you can know what kind of person he is, trustworthy or corrupt. Morality gear can also bring about unneeded change to a genre already driven by the acquisition of what the next best thing and do more bad than good. Its success will depend on how BioWare implements this feature. Until then all you can do is hope that the gear for the alignment you chose looks cool.
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Posted 8/13/2011 2:29:28 PM2...Alignment discrimination does exist. I had more than one paladin spew hatred my way when i was on my warlock. So think carefully before you equip those red light sabers with the Teir 2 dark side requirements.
3... stats arn't really important in this game. How many slots the item has , so I can upgrade the heck out of it , thats whats important.
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Posted 8/16/2011 10:31:46 PMFor instance you chose light, but the person who won the roll chose dark. They get dark points + a bonus of dark points for winning the roll. You get light points, but you play out the dark scenario.
If you want to see what the light scenario is you just replay the mission and hope you or someone who chooses light wins the roll next time.
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Posted 8/12/2011 6:31:39 PM"In other words, once enough Light side choices are made, players will be promoted from Light I to Light II. Conversely, once Light II has been reached, and Dark side choices begin to be made, the player will go back to Light I and eventually reach Dark I, Dark II, etc. Depending on the alignment level of the character, different dialogue options may open up, others may close and certain types of armor may become available to equip."
Georg Zoeller said: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=7816559#edit7816559
"The game tracks both your light and dark side choices. Once a quest is completed, these choices are locked in final, forever. You can never 'reduce' the dark side influence your character has built up, you can only try to balance it out with light side choices.
So, short: Yes, you can play neutral, but in the context this game that would mean making per case choices in quest, trying to do both of light or dark choices of similar magnitude."
I took Georg's comment to mean that BOTH alignments will fill based on your choices throughout the whole game. It looks like the alignment points are going to work the same as Mass Effect's Paragon/Renegade system and track all choices from beginning to forever. So I THINK, (think), as far as gear is concerned, it COULD, (could), work something like this:
Say I'm trying to play a Gray, not Neutral, Gray Bounty Hunter, which I plan to. Early on I commit a lil' genocide and exterminate all of the adult Evocii on Nal Hutta to earn 1000 Darkside points. This makes me Lvl 2 Darkside. As a bonus I earn some credits, and the coveted "Helm of the Weeping Children" with a Lvl 2 Darkside Requirement. I equip it.
Later in the story, I save all of the Evocii orphans from starvation by founding an orphanage with all the credits I earned from slaughtering their parents. Plus 1000 Lightside points to me, which makes me Lvl 2 Lightside. I also receive "The Blaster of a Thousand Truths", with a Lvl 2 Lightside requirement. I have the points, so I equip it IN ADDITION TO my Darkside Helmet.
(I HAVE NO FACTS OR QUOTES TO BASE THE NEXT PART OF THE STORY ON, SO IT"S JUST FOR HEARSAY, FUN, AND A FLAMEPOST OR TWO)
Then, with all the hide I have torn from the backs of my enemies real and imagined, I craft a pair of Lvl 1 Gray "Leather Boots of Evocii Past",(500 Lightside and Darkside points since Gray isn't listed as a stat, just a choice).
Finally, rather than soar into the sunset with my "Jetpack of Extremely Limited Uses", I walk through mainstreet so everyone can see my various gear, and how bipolar I truly am. Are ya ready boots? Start walkin'...
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Posted 8/12/2011 11:51:59 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 8/13/2011 1:09:44 AMNo morality gear issues, (If I recall correctly), or MMO aspect in Mass Effect to consider though.
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Posted 8/14/2011 11:00:50 AMin other words, you will never be both lightside and darkside like some suggested (as it was in ME) but you cant really "remove" your darkside points either. You CAN, however, balance them out by doing good deeds.
so if youve done mostly bad deeds when you reach level 20, its not enough to do just one or two good deeds to go lightside.
TL;DR: the game keeps a total tally of lightside and darkside points, The difference between them decides your alignment: 1000 darkside points and 1200 lightside points means 200 points light alignment.
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Posted 8/15/2011 7:24:01 AMThe way it seems to work is you start out at Light Side: 0 and Dark Side: 0, meaning Neutral. Hypothetically, it takes 250 points to reach Tier I in either direction. So you make enough Light Side choices to become Light I, so you are now Light Side: 250 and Dark Side: 0. You make some more choices that are Light Side until you reach 500 points, making you Light II. So now you have Light Side: 500 and Dark Side: 0. But now you decide to be a jerk and you start making bad decisions. You get 100 points in the Dark Side, demoting you to Light I. So you are now Light Side: 500 and Dark Side: 100 but because it takes 500 points to be Light II and you only have 400 points of Light Side alignment, you are only Light I. You are never deducted points but you are on a scale that shifts depending on where your points are.
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Posted 8/12/2011 6:10:05 PMOne question, where is the darkside corruption feature (i.e awesome kotor facial corruption) that I remember being talked about a year or two ago? Maybe its now impossible to impliment, maybe it only applys to humans. If they still include it (IMO) they should put a "corruption" tab in the settings menu for those ppl unlike me who don't want the system to affect their appearance.
More alignment options please! :)
SWTOR Character Names:
Wound in the Force:: Avinoam (Lvl 50 DS Assassin), Gurion (Lvl 20 LS Sith Juggernaught), Adomin (LVL 33 DS Sentinel),Achinoam (Lvl 10 Grey Consular), Tzahala (LVL 14 DS Trooper),Juliraus (LVL 9 Grey/Dark BH)
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Posted 8/12/2011 4:55:20 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 8/12/2011 2:02:47 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 8/12/2011 2:00:48 PMI'm really scared of morality gear though... The idea of grinding morality... realllllllly grinds my gears. I can't imagine it being fun to hit level cap to be say Light iV or whatever and realize that the current best raid dps or pvp morality is Dark Side and that I now have to run X number of flashpoints being a polar opposite of how I played the story just to have the competitive edge.
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Posted 8/14/2011 11:04:45 AMits all about balance... (this is just from what ive gleaned from talking to betatesters that arent really allowed to say anything... so its kinda hard to drag it out of them)
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Posted 8/11/2011 4:36:18 PM- View User Profile
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Posted 8/11/2011 3:15:27 PMThe notion of: These weapons are so inhumane that only sadists/darksiders use them.
I can buy into the notion of Force-based items responding to (or containing) light and dark force energy. It would be interesting to see what a purely Tech-based light-sided item would be like.
Unless the put in some sort of workaround of "Karmic" items for non-force users. Where a smuggler has a lucky pair of shoulder pads that respond to the fact the smuggler is good guy.
Force-sensitive pants just sound wrong. -_-
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Posted 8/11/2011 2:27:22 PMAs long as it's not something idiotic like, go light to heal and go dark to DPS with the Sage/Sorcerer, for example, it will be fine.
The Fatman - PvP - East Coast