Originally posted by LoStio89

Originally posted by ktanner3

Good Guys: Trooper, Smuggler,?,?,

Bad Guys: Bounty Hunter,?,?,?

How do you think it will end up? Here's my guess

 

Good Guys: Trooper,Smuggler,Spy,Jedi

Bad Guys: Bounty Hunter,Sith Trooper,Spy, Sith

 

 

  And the "Grey" Guys? Where are they? Will they come? I hope so....BHs are Grey in my Opinion

The factions do not mean good or evil. They are just factions. There will be good and evil players in both factions based upon the choices made along the way.

Therefore, I believe any class could potentially be 'grey' characters if you make good and evil choices along the way... but there is definitely no 3rd faction.

Originally posted by Rydeson

     So ONLY smugglers can smuggle for the Republic? and ONLY Sith can be BH's?  Hummmmm Can we say Bioware is already screwing the pooch on this one..  Both classes have NO loyalty or alligance to either side.. And are Smugglers actually smuggling anything, or are they just another dps class that uses "cover".... lmaooo   OH  and BIOWARE.. LISTEN UP..

 "HOW damn ICONIC is it to have an arrow on your screen to tell you, as a smuggler, where the best cover position is?"  

I about pissed myself laughing at your contradictary logic and statements..  ROFPMSLMAO...... lol

Nope, there are Republic bounty hunters, and smugglers working for the Sith.  You just won't be playing as them.  This game is all about creating a cohesive story and keeping the character iconic.  It's not a "do-whatever-you-want", sandbox-style adventure.  The fact that smuggler and bounty hunters are allied to certain factions has absolutely nothing to do with "loyalty", and you'd know that if you bothered to do the slightest bit of research.  Smugglers are allied with the Republic because the Sith would kill them on sight (they broke the Mandalorian blockade and ruined the Sith's victory), and the Republic doesn't hire many bounty hunters because they can't be trusted (as the webcomic shows).  Now kindly, go "ROFPMSLMAO" somewhere else, or do some damn research on what you're blathering about.  

There was some buzz about pet classes like droid engineer and (presumably the sith counterpart) the slaver, though I don't know how much credence I put in that since every class will basically be a pet class thanks to the NPC companions.

I'm guessing:

Jedi, Smuggler, Trooper, Engineer
Sith, Bounty Hunter, Mandalorian, Sapper

In a setting so rich in sci-fi and technology, I could quite imagine a science based "magic" class that could toss force-fields around and deploy turrents/mines and stuff.

With each class having it's own KOTOR-like storyline, I'll naturally end up doing all of them (eventually) and as I usually gravitate towards being an iconic paragon of virtue in most "moral choice" situations, I'll likely stick with that. Will be interesting to see how a light-side Sith is perceived by his peers.

A lof of people seem confused about what smugglers and bounty-hunters are.

Forget for a moment that in the real-world smugglers are criminals who trade in drugs and human beings and bounty-hunters bring criminals to justice.

In the Star Wars Universe as created in the movies and original books, you only got two sides. That is the empire, which is about absolute control over all its citizens and who puts humans first. And the rebels that is defined as NOTHING else then the group that is fighting them.

The rebels are good for no other reason then because they are the ones fighting the baddies. 

This works in the movies, you don't have to much time to wonder about forms of goverment when planets are being blow-up. 

In the first books, Han Solo Adventures, there is already a need for more depth. The smuggler Han Solo becomes not so much a dodger of tariffs but a rogue, a lover of freedom. Han Solo at Star's End has another character remark that the empire will come to no harm oppressing scholars as himself, but when they seek to control free people like Han, that is when they will be doomed. Which is of course is what happens. 

In a later novel however, it comes clear that Han Solo is less of an actual smuggler and more a free-trader and the goverment ain't all baddies as he joins up with an agent of the empire who is seeking to fight corruption in the goverment. Han Solo still ends up arrested because no goverment can afford to run a smuggler run free.

It is in the expanded universe that the simple star wars really shows its cracks. A new group is introduced, the "criminals". SWG introduced these with its space expansion. For some odd reason, most people seem to put the bounty-hunters and even smugglers into this new group.

The "greys" mentioned earlier. But Han Solo is NEVER EVER grey. He is white. In all the movies, all the books he is NEVER EVER EVIL. He fights evil and prepression whenever he can. Sure, he grumbles a bit, but his character NEVER even lets evil get its way. He is in fact far more noble then the Jedi, the jedi are happy to let slavery be if it suits their intrests. Not Han Solo.

Han Solo is not a smuggler, he is a rogue who makes his living flying cargo from A to B. Sometimes that means dodging people at C who want to charge money for said cargo but that is just what he does between fighting evil.

I think that Bioware are making the same "mistake" with the smuggler class as D&D did with the thief class. Name them both rogues and their true role becomes much clearer.

The expanded universe tries to extend upon the basic rules of Star Wars by forching the rebels to actually have a form of goverment, of law and order (and clipping Han Solo's wings), pushing smugglers and bountry-hunters into new roles and create an empire that is in many ways a legit form of goverment really not that different from real world goverments.

But even with this added complexity, Star Wars remains a simple universe (which is the reason we like it, we are basically all still childeren at heart and we want to know the goody from the baddy and that the baddy is going to buy the farm at the end).

I wonder what Bioware will do with this. They have never been good at giving players a grey path. Make the empire/sith semi-decent or at least not wholly evil and it looses its appeal. What is the point of playing a sith if you can't kick puppies? And what good is being a jedi if the audience don't hiss at your opponent? 

From the way the classes have so far been split up I think we might see something like this.

Smugglers are really just rogues, on the whole good, but while they have their price, they cannot be bought. 

They love money but freedom even more and right now, the empire represents the greatest threat to their way of life. No smuggler can work for the empire and still remain a smuggler.

By the same notion, a bounty-hunter is someone who believes in power and control. Pay them and they will excersive control on your request. Freedom to them is off limited value, they capture anyone for the right amount and the reasons don't concern them. They might value their own freedom but probably assume that they are to strong to be controlled of or to little intrest. A bounty-hunter who starts to consider right and wrong won't last for long. 

I have no idea how this will work out in game. It would really be a first. But I don't think you can have evil smugglers and good bountry-hunters. That would totally screw up game balance. At what point do your actions make you switch alliagance and therefor also your class?

For Jedi/Sith it is obvious. A jedi becomes a dark lord and vice-versa. Could a smuggler become a bounty-hunter?

But I think those looking for very complex systems are in for a disappointment. Bioware has never done this before, nor has any other company. Black&White. Good vs Evil. A kind Sith would be very hard to write for and what about a kind but strict sith? A brutal but sloppy sith? A strict mean smuggler? The combinations are endless and that means that you need an endless amount of content and content don't come cheap.

The best we can really hope for I think is that if you sway to much for your chosen alignment you get a betrayal quest and switch sides. Everything else is going to end up a mess in a single player game let alone a MMORPG that is supposed to last years.

Originally posted by Kilmar

I love Bioware games, but I want a healer or atleast a healer-like classe ;/

I think any force sensitive will have healing powers. Most likely the jedi will.

Originally posted by tillamook

Originally posted by Swanea

Each class belongs to a faction, Sith Empire, or the Republic.

 

You can be dark/light, evil/good on either side, but you belong to that faction for pvp purposes.

 

It's not strictly for PvP purposes in that aspect as you say. There is an alignment system you haven't been told about yet that will effect how those in your own faction treat you. You can’t be a trader to your faction without it effecting how you are viewed by your own fellow faction NPC, what planets you are welcome on, including how other players and guilds view you.

Yes, in the beginning you will start each class within its faction. As you play through the story the factional alignment will adjust based on how you play the story arcs. It is a light/darksystem somewhat, but not as you think.  It actually affects your factional alignment in the end. You start as a BH with no empathy towards the Republic because they pissed you off ,as you move through your story you will make decisions that effect how others view you, and in the end it will also affect your PvP role, but that is mostly end game stuff.

In a sense the more emotionally involved you get in these stories, the more your alignment will reflect that. If you are a Sith simp, it’s gonna show, players and NPC everywhere will know. If you’re a real badass evil Sith, NPC will know and fear you. If you are a real mean Jedi, eventually it will be known by everyone what you are really about. In the end, you have changed so much that people, players want to kill you. Just like Count Dooku, just like Anikin.

You can only get away with treason for so long, but the real question is, will people around you figure it out before it’s too late?

If Bioware can pull this off, I will be a very happy camper.

Originally posted by MochaG

Originally posted by Kilmar

I love Bioware games, but I want a healer or atleast a healer-like classe ;/

 

I think any force sensitive will have healing powers. Most likely the jedi will.

My understanding in what I've read is that some classes will have healing abilities but it won't be enough to make them a healing class in the traditional sense.  Which I think is great.  I look forward to the "healers" having to get into the fray with us grunts and get their hands dirty.  No more staying out of the action and screaming about having agro.

Yeah because in comparison Engineer and Sapper are just as heroic as Jedi, Mandolorian, and Smuggler. 

I think the most likely match up will be

Jedi  -  Smuggler  -  Trooper  -  Spy

Sith  -  BountyHunter  -Mandolorian  -  Assassin 

Bioware is choosing classes that players are just as likely to play as the Jedi or Sith, because of this fact I think that Spy/Assassins are much more likely to emerge then Engineer or Slaver. They want to find classes who's stories are just as bad ass as the Force user's.

If spy emerges I could see a campaign in which the player would be on assignment from the Republic to sneak in and out of bases to steal data, or maybe even to go undercover as a Sith officer to learn about attacks and plots against the Republic.

Likewise I could see an Assassin campaign consisting of recieving hits from Sith lords and taking out important Republic senators in order to help insure the Republics co-operation.  

Originally posted by StuBidasoe

Originally posted by MochaG

Originally posted by Kilmar

I love Bioware games, but I want a healer or atleast a healer-like classe ;/

 

I think any force sensitive will have healing powers. Most likely the jedi will.

 

My understanding in what I've read is that some classes will have healing abilities but it won't be enough to make them a healing class in the traditional sense.  Which I think is great.  I look forward to the "healers" having to get into the fray with us grunts and get their hands dirty.  No more staying out of the action and screaming about having agro.

I wish they would have a healer class and that's it.  None of this garbage where all jedi have access to a free heatlh bar refill every 30 seconds. If they are a jedi that train specifically for healing powers then it should be like the novels where he has little attack powers and is there just to heal the group. I know this is the opposite of what you are saying, but for jedi it's completely canon with what the novels said.  And not everyone likes to be the point man in the middle of things. A lot of people prefer being a support class. I think it adds to good variety and I always enjoyed trying to protect the healer.
 

Originally posted by catlana

Originally posted by tillamook

Originally posted by Swanea

Each class belongs to a faction, Sith Empire, or the Republic.

 

You can be dark/light, evil/good on either side, but you belong to that faction for pvp purposes.

 

It's not strictly for PvP purposes in that aspect as you say. There is an alignment system you haven't been told about yet that will effect how those in your own faction treat you. You can’t be a trader to your faction without it effecting how you are viewed by your own fellow faction NPC, what planets you are welcome on, including how other players and guilds view you.

Yes, in the beginning you will start each class within its faction. As you play through the story the factional alignment will adjust based on how you play the story arcs. It is a light/darksystem somewhat, but not as you think.  It actually affects your factional alignment in the end. You start as a BH with no empathy towards the Republic because they pissed you off ,as you move through your story you will make decisions that effect how others view you, and in the end it will also affect your PvP role, but that is mostly end game stuff.

In a sense the more emotionally involved you get in these stories, the more your alignment will reflect that. If you are a Sith simp, it’s gonna show, players and NPC everywhere will know. If you’re a real badass evil Sith, NPC will know and fear you. If you are a real mean Jedi, eventually it will be known by everyone what you are really about. In the end, you have changed so much that people, players want to kill you. Just like Count Dooku, just like Anikin.

You can only get away with treason for so long, but the real question is, will people around you figure it out before it’s too late?

 

If Bioware can pull this off, I will be a very happy camper.

I do to. Sort of adds more of that role play elemant that has been lacking in MMORPGs lately. Heck, we hardly call them that anymore . Most of the time we call these games MMOs because that is all they are anymore.