Originally Posted by
Kiru
Rank 5 Light Empire/Rank 5 Dark Republic characters should be able to do a long, solo quest line on a very grand scale (storywise) that can only ever be done once and can't be undone, to defect to the other side. Not a race/faction change, you'd be a Smuggler on the Empire's Side, or Sith Warrior on Republic.
Infact I remember reading that if you're a Light Side Bounty Hunter it is implied you are going to swap sides near the end, but you don't obviously. I don't really see why this feature would cause problems, the classes are balanced mirrors of each other (supposedly, but not really cause Bioware are clowns and need to fix some classes).
In the game world you see and hear about people defecting all the time, it's not so much of a stretch that players should be able to. I mean it seems kinda silly when you're a Jedi Knight walking around killing people who existed at you funny, yet you're still saving the world.