Bounty Hunter is Sith Empire only and full of choices in latest BioWare dev blog

by Kyle Horner Apr 6th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

We know about the basics of the Bounty Hunter class in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but not the finer details of the how and why. That's where BioWare's first developer blog on classes comes into the picture. The focus of the piece is to explain the reasoning behind choices made concerning the Bounty Hunter, and in its mission to do so a little bit more of the game is revealed.

For instance, since each class will have its own story and both the Republic and Sith Empire are to have different quest experiences entirely, a character class will only exist on one side. This means that Bounty Hunters are Sith Empire only -- so we hope those who're planning on rolling this class aren't too set on being on printing business cards with "The Republic" on them.

What excites us most is the bevy of choices BioWare is attempting to make available to players. "Does your honor come from getting the job done or being a good person? Is your loyalty to your crew, your conscience or your credits?" It's questions like these that perk the ears on our heads. And our hope is that delivery will be made so that our precious time can be ticked away on a galactic battle between forces of good and evil.

Tags: bioware, bounty-hunter, dev-blog, developer-blog, ea, electronic-arts, jedi, republic, sith, sith-empire, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Caibek said on 9:26AM 4-06-2009

Well... im soo looking forward to this. Does that sound desperate? When SWG's NGE hit I was devastated. I sat'n watched the exodus. I wondered how a game with such a large fan base could implode.

I REALLY hope BIOWARE is taking notes from them. Gotta admit I check this site everyday for general news but hope to see something about SW:TOR with every click.

Its the WoW killer for me, and its been a long time coming.

Force or not... yer all credits to me jedi.

Iokthemonkey said on 9:55AM 4-06-2009

I think people expecting SWG 2 are going to be massively disappointed.

Not knocking SW:TOR but I don't think it's going to have the depth and "sandbox-ness" of SWG and - to Bioware's credit - they've never said it will. A lot of people are going to be disappointed IMO.

ethereal.wolf said on 11:27AM 4-06-2009

no offense, SWG sux bawls, in its current incarnation its an EQ clone with a skin on loan from lucas.

JP said on 10:07AM 4-06-2009

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute…

Didn’t they tell us months ago that we’d be able to whatever we wanted on either side? Didn’t they say specifically that you’d be able to be a bounty hunter that worked for the Republic? Something about being good and playing bad or vice versa. Now you’re forced to pick a side b/c it’s a Faction vs Faction, class specific game?

What happen? Dismissing their mangled reasoning, a Bounty Hunter has NO affinity. They go where the credits are. Period. Instead of trying to mislead players by thinking this is a true representative of a “Bounty Hunter” class, they should have just named it the damn Sith Infantry Soldier or Super Solider or w/e the fuck.

This game is turning out to be the one exasperated, redundant saying I DIDN’T want it to be – WoW in space. Pick a side! Pick a class! Pick a race!

Plus, “every class has its own unique story” … so how do we group up in this multiplayer online game if we’re all on different quests that don’t overlap? Welcome to the MSO. Massively Solo Online game.

I care about this game less and less every time pertinent info comes out. Of course it's going to be F2P. There's no where near enough depth in this game for $15 a month.

RogueJedi86 said on 4:56PM 4-06-2009

How does making BH faction-specific make it like WoW? If you remember, all classes can be played by both factions in WoW. Being like WoW would actually mean BH was available to both Republic and Sith.

Bounty Hunter for Sith works for me, since the Republic has morals, they wouldn't stoop to hiring hitmen to further their goals. Everyone knows that in the SW universe the Sith are evil. There's no sugarcoating it, and Murderers-For-Hire fits with alignment.

NeuroMan42 said on 10:45AM 4-06-2009

I am looking forward to ToR as SWG was a travesty in the eyes of many Star Wars fans. It still sickens me to see the how SWG turned out and what they eventually did to it. ToR will be the only true Star Wars MMO in my mind.

Lateris said on 10:53AM 4-06-2009

I think there should of been a criminal sub faction for the Bounty Hunter within the Sith Empire. I hope they start on a criminal planet for the sake of story. I have a feeling this game may be another version of the WoW design yet with better stories. I can only speculate. And If it is free to play and based on item purchases I might just pass. For me that sort of business model is something I try to avoid due to my "want it now" addiction for all things virtual related.

I am still curious about a possible space game for this product. And if there will be player living quarters of some sort. Thanks Massively for the updates.

ethereal.wolf said on 11:36AM 4-06-2009

..... why lock people who want to be bounty hunter into sith? why not give them the option to be republic? why not have 2 seperate story lines for sith and republic bounty hunters? Bioware has been touting their big writing staff for this project, lets see you get creative with the writing bioware and craft multiple story options. I guess I really shouldn't be suprised though, since BG series was pretty much a linear plot, you had the good choice or the evil choice but you still went down the same rail. stuff like that is what seperates the good from the truly great studios. I mourn the loss of Black Isle. *sniff*

UnSub said on 11:57AM 4-06-2009

And so it begins, as SWOR has to move beyond the hype and start indicating how the title will actually play.

Leshrac said on 12:19PM 4-06-2009

I agree with JP; the BH should be neutral. They don't lean towards any faction, just their job and who is paying them. Big mistake, big mistake Bioware. I guess this is for pvp purposes?

Iokthemonkey said on 12:31PM 4-06-2009

Say what you like about it as a Star Wars game, but SWG - before they screwed it up - was a superbly engaging, deep, sandbox MMO.

I've a feeling TOR is going to be "WoW with lightsabres."

Dre said on 12:48PM 4-06-2009

"Which leads me to the third decision we made: No class would exist in both factions – at least at first. [...] Was the idea of a Republic Bounty Hunter cool? Absolutely. But far less iconic than the Imperial aligned one and we had other Republic classes we wanted to get in there instead. At least for now…"

Key points: "at first" & "for now".

Settle down. Read articles. Think. Then post.

JP said on 1:20PM 4-06-2009

Sorry Dre. That means ziltch in this day & age of MMOs. You have your launch to impressive the leigons, or they will be either off to the next launch or back to their old faithful.

"for now" is a cop-out anyway. In that case, I'm going to not have no interest in the game anymore.... for now :P

JP said on 1:22PM 4-06-2009

"going to not have any interest in the game... for now" just clearing that up.

Dre said on 1:45PM 4-06-2009

JP, I do agree with your point about how important launching well is for MMOs, and I hope that they take their time and make sure this is ready "out of the gate".

However, with no definitive launch date, I'm not too worried about whether or not "for now", with regards to future Republic BHs, means pre- or post-launch updates. I'm much more interested in how the unique class story lines will mesh with grouping, than I am with what they decide to call the different faction's classes. That's just me though, I'd be willing to give up being able to play any class regardless of faction in order to get better story telling...and I think that the latter will ultimately help set this game apart from the crowd more than the former would.

Personally, I don't think that you're going back on much lore by restricting BHs to the Sith. Even though BHs are not all evil, their line of work (kidnapping, assassination) seems better suited to "evil" side. I'm not saying that's all they do, but the roles that overlap with the "good" could easily be filled by a Republic Smuggler class, or something of that nature. I think there's a good chance that BioWare will do enough things right so that we won't mind a lack of options in some cases.

Lateris said on 2:59PM 4-06-2009

Can anyone verify if BH's were ever hired by the Republic to begin with?

Jay said on 3:10PM 4-06-2009

This does not make sense to me. Bounty Hunters (like Smugglers or Pirates) are in it for themselves. They take jobs or do whatever it takes to make money and/or gain glory.

If we go by Bioware's logic:

Han Solo was a Smuggler = Smuggler class will be Republic aligned

I guess I should just practice the mantra, "This is just a game. This is just a game..."

Dekun said on 3:13PM 4-06-2009

I, for one, am excited to play WoW with lightsabers in a world of bioware style storytelling. Their hints of RvR style PvP and the left4dead/nazi zombie against all odds approach to raiding has me very excited.

Also, the whole Free To Play/Micro Transaction thing has been dismissed as a misunderstanding.

Dre said on 4:25PM 4-06-2009

Jay,

You're right that both "are in it for themselves", but some of their defining services are more in demand / aligned with certain factions. I'm not sure if the balance of power between Sith/Republic will mimic that of the Empire/Rebellion...but if it does, it absolutely makes sense that the classes of Bounty Hunter and Smuggler would be specific to the Sith and Republic respectively. If you are an imperial-type power, you don't need to smuggle goods...on the other hand, you would be in a good position to consistently out-bid a struggling rebel-type power for the services of bounty hunters.

Its a little early to start judging this game, especially since this is one of the first class/faction announcements (other than Sith/Jedi). On its own, its hardly a make/break announcement. If the story lines are as good previous BioWare projects, and certain core elements broken (combat and grouping to name just two), there might be a lot to look forward to.

I share the same sense of pessimism with regards to Lucas Arts recent gaming history, but for now I've found that it helps to just pretend like its just BioWare working on an MMO...