SWTOR classes are faction-specific

By Oli Welsh Published 7 April, 2009

Bounty Hunters have to side with Sith.

Another crumb of information on Star Wars: the Old Republic has dropped from BioWare's jealously-guarded fact cake. All the character classes in the MMO will side with only one of the game's factions - Jedi or Sith.

In a developer blog about the recently-revealed Bounty Hunter class, writer Daniel Erickson said that this was a product of two early decisions: that every class would have its own story, and that no story would exist on both sides of the factional divide.

"Star Wars is a story about good and evil - it simply doesn't make sense to have Jedi and Sith doing the same quests," he said. "Creating one batch of content for all players would have been half the cost, taken half the time and solved any number of organizational headaches but it was simply the wrong choice from a storytelling perspective."

Erickson explained that this ruled out a Republic bounty hunter. "Which leads me to the third decision we made: No class would exist in both factions - at least at first. Each class gets its own story; no story content exists on both sides. If we did Bounty Hunters on both sides of the fence, we'd have to write two different Bounty Hunter stories at the expense of a different class that was more iconic to the Republic."

Erickson went on to give some hints as to the storylines and gameplay that the Bounty Hunter quest line would encompass. "At the heart of the Bounty Hunter story is the hunt itself. Smugglers, Jedi, Sith, rebel leaders, rogue droids, assassins, entire gangs or embezzling underlings, the Bounty Hunter takes them all down. Each hunt has its own flavor and each hunt brings with it a unique set of challenges and choices.

"Do you follow the job's description to the letter and kill the wayward daughter of a powerful officer or do you bring her in alive and force the man to do his own dirty work? Will you take a bribe to fake a kill you didn't make - will you switch sides when it's clear the person you're hunting has more honor and justification for his actions than the one who sent you?"

Star Wars: the Old Republic is in development for PC and has no release date. More at the gamepage.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • insincere_dave #1 3 years ago

    And no disintegrations...
    Edited by insincere_dave at 07/04/09 @ 11:28

  • Ninja_Tino #2 3 years ago

    This game sounds very ambitious. Time shall tell.

  • BigJonno #3 3 years ago

    It does sound like they're trying to make a bunch of single player RPGs that are tied together, rather than a typical MMO structure. Definitely going to be interesting to watch.

  • hiddenranbir #4 3 years ago

    Close to Guild War's instance stuff? Sharing the story only when you want/have to?

  • TedMoseby #5 3 years ago

    However, aren't Bounty Hunters the middle ground? They're in it for the money - the side of the conflict or the morals of the faction don't matter - it's the cold hard credits at the end of the day.

    If the Old Republic wants to hire a bounty hunter to track someone down, why not? I guess it suggests that Bounty Hunter shouldn't really be a class, it should be an occupation that someone chooses to do (or not).

    If I have the skills to go out and hunt someone down, and am "pretty good in a fight", then what's to stop me - but that shouldn't define me as a class, it's just something that I do occasionally - hell, half the quests in any MMO could arguably make the player that does them into a bounty hunter...

    Still, really looking forward to the game, I've loved most of Bioware's work over the years.

  • wittynic #6 3 years ago

    how can a Bounty Hunter "do the right thing" as is suggested at the end of the article, if they are aligned with the Sith?

  • skillian #7 3 years ago

    This does sound like the first MMO I will ever play.

  • anomagnus #8 3 years ago

    i am looking forward to this!

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #9 3 years ago

    @BigJonno

    I agree - this sounds really good, and previously I've never bothered with MMOs because a) I'm shy, b) strapped for time, and c) don't fancy the monthly charge. If this is, more or less, a series of linked single player experiences - perhaps even playable offline - then it might just tempt me.

    Plus, it's Star Wars.

  • Drogul #10 3 years ago

    If they get it right, it will be a wow killer.

  • prolific8 #11 3 years ago

    Still want KotoR 3 please. Stop making this and do something productive.

  • Gastrian #12 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • chudders #13 3 years ago

    Not keen on the idea. Half the fun of the Star Wars universe is that despite having obvious 'good' and 'evil' sides, there was a place for those who occupy the middle ground i.e. bounty hunters, smugglers, crime lords, mercenaries, etc. Putting them all into one or t'other pot actually sounds quite lazy. I would have preferred a more distinctive middle ground.

    Guess I'll have to wait and see.

  • AphoticCosmos #14 3 years ago

    @wittynic

    "how can a Bounty Hunter "do the right thing" as is suggested at the end of the article, if they are aligned with the Sith?"

    BioWare has stated that you aren't tied to being evil or good depending on whether you're with the Sith Empire or the Republic. Any class on either side will have plenty of options to be good or evil.

  • wittynic #15 3 years ago

    @AphoticCosmos

    But then even that doesnt make sense. Unless you can switch sides, a force user who "sides" with the Republic but murders people and is generally evil isnt a Jedi, they are a Sith.

    Maybe each class will have a "comparable" class on the other faction, that at some point during the class story-line you have the option/temptation/redemption to convert to?

  • AphoticCosmos #16 3 years ago

    "But then even that doesnt make sense. Unless you can switch sides, a force user who "sides" with the Republic but murders people and is generally evil isnt a Jedi, they are a Sith.

    Maybe each class will have a "comparable" class on the other faction, that at some point during the class story-line you have the option/temptation/redemption to convert to?"

    The Sith are an establishment at this time, not just a way of being. I don't think we're talking about Jedi going on the rampage and killing people, but more grey Jedi who make choices away from the norm of the lightside. We could similarly be looking at the concept of a "grey Sith". This is the same Sith Empire that the Jedi have tried to basically commit genocide against dozens of times, so there are going to be quite a few Sith by now with a belief in the Sith State rather than the Sith ways themselves, so perhaps don't necessarily follow the "choke, electrocute, cut in half" pattern of Sith up until now.

    I think BioWare can make it work, I'll certainly be logging on on launch day :).
    Edited by AphoticCosmos at 07/04/09 @ 13:59

  • cw- #17 3 years ago

    I'll certainly be logging on on launch day :)

    Well, you'll attempt to, but like every other MMO you won't be able to on launch :p

  • sneetch #18 3 years ago

    @Drogul
    If they get it right, it will be a wow killer.

    In fairness, it won't. It could wound it though. :)

    People have proven reluctant to switch from a game like WoW where they have put days (weeks, months) of play time into their characters to start over again in a new world.

  • iokthemonkey #19 3 years ago

    And what are the odds that Smugglers will be "good-guys" only?

  • GamesConnoisseur #20 3 years ago

    Still pining for the KOTOR3, but this is the direction that more games will take in the future.

  • yashin #21 3 years ago

    @sneetch

    Agreed - only WoW can kill WoW, at this point. When it starts to lose its way, it'll start to lose followers apace.

    If done well SWOTR could give many people a reason to switch, and give just as many people a reason to start an MMO.

    In the battle of fantasy vs star wars, star wars gets the hipster vote.
    Edited by yashin at 07/04/09 @ 16:39

  • Dynamize #22 3 years ago

    As a bounty hunter why the hell would you halve your customer base by getting political? This guy sounds moronic, or desperate to justify a crappy idea.

  • Xensor #23 3 years ago

    Actually only Lego Online has a real chance of toppling WoW if Blizz don't do it for them.

  • Drakron #24 3 years ago

    Trying too hard to be WoW ... and even WoW eventually drop the whole "exclusive" classes.

    Also I agree this sounds like they are trying to shove what is a single player game into a MMO ... and its not going to work.

  • gm_al #25 3 years ago

    Reading "iconic" in a Star Wars MMO brings back some very bad memories...