Moral questions as Sith Sorcerer

[Vertigo]

The way that dark side/light side played out [or didn't] as a Sith Sorc in the first 5 levels doesn't make sense to me from a philosophical standpoint.

Ignoring the fact that using a slave system to recruit new soldiers doesn't seem very plausible [though undeniably Sith like] - what I don't get is why I don't have the option of immediately helping other slaves? One of the tombs has a bunch of Slave castouts and rebels, and they are all red. And of course they are in my way so I have to kill them. Now perhaps I just didn't wait long enough, but I was building an evil character and I didn't really want to.

The next weird thing was the Imperial Scientist who wanted a brain from one of those dog-like things. I didn't really get that sabotaging his research would be the 'good path'. The assistant said that his research was pointless and sabotaging the brain would ruin it. Well that doesn't make sense, if the research is invalid, what is there to be sabotaged?

And hey, I didn't really mind torturing the guy with my electrocutions to get the answer. It didn't make me feel 'evil'. Just getting the job done, no lasting damage.

...

On the smuggler character the choices are a bit more cut and dried.. "Threaten the child" or don't.

[ModerNertum]

Its the Sith. Those experiments were to mind control and torture the Tukata (from what I understand, so its why the sabotage option is labeled as "good").
Some bigoty morality is present on the republic too. I remember Kaon on republic side being one of the worst in that regard (somehow sparing an infected soldier is considered "good").
So in choices like that its more gray than outright "good" or "bad".
About your specific class story: Its the Sith way. Your character (warrior or inquisitor) is a slave released from servitude and forced to master the dark arts of the Sith or die trying. The Sith do this all the time, if they find a slave attuned to the Force in the Empire they send them to face the cruel Sith Academy trials or die during them.

[CrackeR]

If you want a mushy , save the animals type character then you should NOT play a Sith lol
Plenty of, i just wanna sit and meditate on it, save the puppies types as Jedi on the Republic side!

[SniperWolfMGS]

FYI your going to find quite a few things that don't make alot of sense and will ruin the immersion in favor of progressing the narrative. That's just a byproduct of the MMO genre at the time. As I mentioned in another thread: Just try to talk a old and super wise Jedi Master out of fighting. You can't do it. Infact I feel like they often come across as more blood thirsty than my max dark level sith.

[NavFamG]

Originally posted by Vertigo:

Ignoring the fact that using a slave system to recruit new soldiers doesn't seem very plausible

Sure it does. Here's 2 from history; Sparta used it's Helot slaves as infantry along side their Hoplites and the Ottoman Empire had it's Janissaries. Both groups were loyal to the state and the Janissaries were considered an elite fighting force.

[Mad Doctor]

Originally posted by SniperWolfMGS:

FYI your going to find quite a few things that don't make alot of sense and will ruin the immersion in favor of progressing the narrative. That's just a byproduct of the MMO genre at the time. As I mentioned in another thread: Just try to talk a old and super wise Jedi Master out of fighting. You can't do it. Infact I feel like they often come across as more blood thirsty than my max dark level sith.

They were like that more often than not during a fair time (in Legends), so do not be so shocked by it.
Remember Ki-Adi-Mundi and Depa Billaba, just to mention some more recent ones, let alone in the Ole'Republiké.

[SniperWolfMGS]

Um.... is any of that english?

[Mad Doctor]

Originally posted by SniperWolfMGS:

Um.... is any of that english?

Aside from "Ki-Adi-Mundi", "Depa Billaba" and "Republiké", it was all in the Queen's English.

[Xautos]

Originally posted by Vertigo:

The way that dark side/light side played out [or didn't] as a Sith Sorc in the first 5 levels doesn't make sense to me from a philosophical standpoint.

Ignoring the fact that using a slave system to recruit new soldiers doesn't seem very plausible [though undeniably Sith like] - what I don't get is why I don't have the option of immediately helping other slaves? One of the tombs has a bunch of Slave castouts and rebels, and they are all red. And of course they are in my way so I have to kill them. Now perhaps I just didn't wait long enough, but I was building an evil character and I didn't really want to.

The next weird thing was the Imperial Scientist who wanted a brain from one of those dog-like things. I didn't really get that sabotaging his research would be the 'good path'. The assistant said that his research was pointless and sabotaging the brain would ruin it. Well that doesn't make sense, if the research is invalid, what is there to be sabotaged?

And hey, I didn't really mind torturing the guy with my electrocutions to get the answer. It didn't make me feel 'evil'. Just getting the job done, no lasting damage.

...

On the smuggler character the choices are a bit more cut and dried.. "Threaten the child" or don't.

it's not a question of what your character does but what others do. if they got it into their heads they can redeem themselves, get out of the deadly tombs and become sith, these slaves would murder you if they could do so. The way it is setup is that you either succeed or fail and die on Korriban and there is no in between.

Under those circumstances, it is kill or be killed. Since those individuals aren't living much of a life anyway living on fear, hate and adrenaline from day to day, with an eye open during each night waiting for the next failed acolyte to attempt to stab the next failed acolyte in the back.

with the scientist Lord Renning looking for the Tu'kata brain, he was looking for the answer to what makes the force manifest in individuals, why they are special and why they have power and this tu'kata was a research subject. There was clearly something to the brain that Renning would find and sabotaging the research would eliminate that discovery.

The funny thing is that during the smuggler storyline, you run across that very same Tu'kata brain when robbing that imperial ship. So clearly Renning was done with his research and had no further need for the brain.

[CrOnA]

You have the option to help the slaves because the game is an RPG where you make your own decisions its not that deep

[Dethlane]

You can't help unnamed slaves, because they are irrelevant. There's also pretty much no way of helping them, with you being just an acolyte and them being on the business side of imperials' and sith' weapons.

Regarding research - sabotaging it is LS because you're helping Malora that way like she asked.

As for choices not being that "cut and dry", well, it wouldn't have been much fun if they were. Just like there's no fun in going diehard LS/DS just for the sake of it. Complexity is the key.

[NavFamG]

As far 'Moral questions' are we talking about YOUR morals? Because your Sith Sorceror really isn't you and was never intended to be YOU. It's a construct in a game with a totally different background lore than our Real World has.

Feel free to answer the choices with how you would feel or put yourself in the mindset of your character and do what they would.

[Vertigo]

Originally posted by NavFamG:

As far 'Moral questions' are we talking about YOUR morals? Because your Sith Sorceror really isn't you and was never intended to be YOU. It's a construct in a game with a totally different background lore than our Real World has.

Feel free to answer the choices with how you would feel or put yourself in the mindset of your character and do what they would.

I'm just trying to align the relative 'light vs dark' to some kind of systematic 'good vs evil' moral framework.

And yes I would kill Baby Grobu to save Yoda.

[Mad Doctor]

Originally posted by Vertigo:

I'm just trying to align the relative 'light vs dark' to some kind of systematic 'good vs evil' moral framework.

And yes I would kill Baby Grobu to save Yoda.

Only a Sith deals in absolutes...

[𒆜Nurse☩With☩Wound𒆜]

Sadly the whole sith story line is trash.. half the choices make zero sense.. or contradict themselves.. its pretty much ' be a douche ' ' kill everyone ' .. or even going light.. thats still what happens.. rando tells you what to do.. you talk like you have power.. but nothing comes of it.. next rando makes you his (#*(.. I very much miss my BH.. an even the agent felt like you had impact.. the inq. though.. ugh

[budisourdog]

Honestly LS/DS doesn't really matter in swtor, you follow a generic story (and conversational) path regardless, there is no branching out like mass effect having more differentiated paragon/renegade convos. Both light / dark are available no matter your current standing and no npcs / quests rely on your previous choices. Only a couple cutscenes and lines are altered altogether.