Happy May The 4th Be With You!!!!

One of things that is absolutely paramount to the continuity and awesomeness of the Star Wars series is the lightsaber.  Without a doubt!  However, in game form, certain concessions must be made to accommodate the MMO setting.  That is, of course, gear and progression.  MMOs do well with having better gear from leveling, questing, crafting, and raiding.  This gives an unending cycle of acquisition and replacement, and that’s actually a good thing!  It gives a lot of purpose to play the games.  But one major thing is missing in the SWTOR game, that’s distinguishability.  Totally a word.  What I mean is this; in many other similar games, the weapons and gear are obvious.  They are big and glowing and have things floating around them… so you can tell when something is an upgrade.  Visually, it looks more powerful.  With the lightsaber, all you have is the hilt and the blade, which have limited visible differences.  The hilts (am I using that right?) are way too small to really be noticed and the blades, well, they’re lightsabers.  I guess there is some distinction with color intensity, variety of colors, and different colored cores, especially with limited availability with certain combos, but at some point, there will be an end to the combinations.  Well… unless they make my rainbowed sword of justice…

So how do we go about fixing this?  Or does it even need to be fixed?  I’m loving the remoddable gear and sporting a certain look, so maybe… just maybe, this whole thing is a non-issue.  BUT, to play Sith’s Advocate for a second, let’s brainstorm some ideas.  One thing I really like about the sith assassin types is there little electric blades.  Not sure what that is, but visually it’s stunning!  Now, I’m thinking of an “enchanted” kind of look.  Think of a fiery or an icy enchant!  An enchant of undeath!  These are wowcraft references, but you get my point.  I think exterior glows, little zaps, fire, snowies, floating things, etc… all ideas for blade additions.  (obviously wouldn’t be actual enchants you add, but just visual enhancements to the leet gear drops)  Another idea would be “activation effects”.  What’s cooler than a lightsaber and striking a pose?  Firing one up!  It’s that sound, the slow draw of the blade, the glow… these things add up to be quite an intimidating weapon.  So, additional effects might help to give better visual ques as to the strength and power of the gear level.  For instance, stronger/louder/more crackled draw sounds can really beef up the effect.  Even stuff like a large flash of light or lightning or sparks on draw would be an amazing plus.  Oh!  How about effects in addition to the assassin lightningy thing like overcharged glows OR big uncontrollable flamed blades!  Like the energy’s all out of control!

Well… those are some ideas anyways.  What do you guys think?