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Astromechs, Friday Features & Other Stuff (2003-2005)
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Imperial Factional Equipment list
- Faction recruiter
- Factional mission terminal
Field Hospital
- Faction recruiter
- Factional mission terminal
- Standard mission terminal
- Bank terminal(s)
- Acts as medical center
Tactical Center
- Faction recruiter
- Factional mission terminal
- Standard mission terminal
- Bank terminal(s)
- Acts as medical center (no auto-healing)
- Acts as cantina
Detachment Headquarters
- Faction recruiter
- Factional mission terminal
- Standard mission terminal
- Bank terminal(s)
- Insurance terminal(s)
- Acts as medical center (no auto-healing)
- Acts as cantina
- Registers on planetary map
- Allows declared & registered doctors, dancers, and musicians to receive elite profession faction perks
(Don't know if this is still working or taken out of the game)
Faction turrets statistics list:
Basic Information: Turrets use 1 lot if not donated to a base and require maintenance.
Armor: heavy
Hitpoints: 300k
Special Protection:
- Energy 95%
- Stun 100%
Resistance:
- all 90%
Vulnerability
- Blast
Special: can hold mines
Small Tower Turret
Large Dish Turret
Armor: heavy
Hitpoints: 300k
Special Protection:
- Energy 95%
- Stun 100%
Resistance:
- all 75%
Vulnerability
- Blast
Special: acts as covert faction scanner
- No data on Armor/Protection/Special (If you got that data, please reply with these stats)
Large Block Turret
Armor: heavy
Hitpoints: 300K
Special Protection:
- Energy 95%
- Stun 100%
Resistance:
- all 80%
Vulnerability
- Blast
Special: armorpiercing
Small Block Turret
Faction Equipment cost list:
Data Terminal (Cost: 560)
Data Terminal (Cost: 700)
Data Terminal (Cost: 840)
Data Terminal (Cost: 980)
Imperial Table (Cost: 700)
Tech Armorie (Cost: 980)
Tech Bookcase (Cost: 980)
Tech Cabinet (Cost: 980)
Tech Chair (Cost: 700)
Tech Chest (Cost: 700)
Tech Coffee Table (Cost: 700)
Tech Couch (Cost: 1050)
Tech End Table (Cost: 700)
Schematics
DZ-70 Droid Schematic (Cost: 5600)
R2 Droid Schematic (Cost: 2800)
R3 Droid Schematic (Cost: 3500)
R4 Droid Schematic (Cost: 4200)
R5 Droid Schematic (Cost: 4900)
Weapon and Armor
Note: You can GET it but not EQUIP it unless you are declared.
Power5 Pistol (Cost: 700)
E-11 Carbine (Cost: 1050)
Sword (Cost: 600)
Rocket Launcher (Cost: 3500)
DRX55 Mine (Cost: 350)
XG Mine (Cost: 350)
Stormtrooper Armor: Left Bicep (Cost: 1400)
Stormtrooper Armor: Right Bicep (Cost: 1400)
Stormtrooper Armor: Boots (Cost: 1400)
Stormtrooper Armor: Left Bracer (Cost: 1400)
Stormtrooper Armor: Right Bracer (Cost: 1400)
Stormtrooper Armor: Chest Plate (Cost: 3500)
Stormtrooper Armor: Gloves (Cost: 1400)
Stormtrooper Armor: Helmet (Cost: 2100)
Stormtrooper Armor: Leggings (Cost: 2100)
Stormtrooper Armor: Utility Belt (Cost: 1400)
Personel
Assault Trooper (Cost: 420)
Bombardier (Cost: 105)
Command Security Guard (Cost: 105)
Compforce Trooper (Cost: 1750)
Dark Trooper (Cost: 2100)
Gunner (Cost: 105)
Private (Cost: 105)
Trooper (Cost: 105)
Sand Trooper (Cost: 420)
Scout Trooper (Cost: 420)
Storm commando (Cost: 462)
Stormtrooper (Cost: 420)
Stormtrooper Bomabardier (Cost: 420)
Stormtrooper Medic (Cost: 420)
Stormtrooper Rifleman (Cost: 420)
Stormtrooper Sniper (Cost: 420)
Swamp Trooper (Cost: 420)
AT-ST (Cost: 9450)
Stats on Storm Trooper Armor:
Armor Rating: 1
Kinetic: 30%
Energy: 30%
Blast: 30%
Restraint: 30%
Cold: 30%
Elictricity: 30%
HAM costs (Health/Action/Mind):
Bracers: 15/16/19
Helmet: 15/16/225
Chest plate: 150/49/19
Bicepts: 15/16/19
Gloves: 15/33/19
Boots: 15/33/19
Leggins: 45/130/19
Constructions
Covert Faction Scanner (Cost: 350)
Minefield (Cost: 350)
Turret: Small Dish (Cost: 1400)
Turret: Large Dish (Cost: 6300)
Turret: Small Block (Cost: 1400)
Turret: Med Block (Cost: 4200)
Turret: Large Block (Cost: 6300)
Turret: Small Tower (Cost: 1400)
Turret: Med Tower (Cost: 4200)
Turret: Large Tower (Cost: 6300)
HQ: Forward Outpost (Cost: 14000)
HQ: Field Hospital (Cost: 28000)
HQ: Tactical Center (Cost: 31500)
HQ: Detachment Headquaters (Cost: 42000)
Uniform
Imperial Boots (Cost:140)
Imperial Hat (Cost:140)
Imperial Jacket (Cost:140)
Imperial Pants (Cost:140)
Combat Upgrade Overview 1
This update is intended to give you a very high level overview of where we are headed and what our goals are. We are open to significant shifts during the hands-on testing opportunity alpha testing gives us, so we don't want to communicate specific details that may end up being completely erroneous after the alpha testing period is completed.
This will be the first of many updates. We look forward to sharing more information with you though it may not be an "every week" frequency at the start. Prepare yourself for a whole lot more fun, flash and interactivity.
High Level Purpose
The SWG combat upgrade is intended to create more exciting combat. The goals for the Combat Upgrade are:
1. Make combat more interesting, diverse, hands-on, and less repetitive.
2. Create character inter-dependences that facilitate group tactics.
3. Make combat feel more like Star Wars
Feature Summary
Here are some of the new features we have added to bring you a more exciting combat experience. More news will be provided as the new combat system shakes out.
1. Make Combat More Interesting
• New HAM System
Separate special action costs from damage – no more dying from using your special actions!
Special action cost adjustments – more variety and tactics in gameplay, special actions now cost time instead of health.
Context sensitive abilities – Exciting new visual effects allow you to make tactical decisions based on changing situations – you can "see" what others are shooting you with while in combat.
• Profession and Character Upgrades
New abilities to help professions – each of the combat professions will be given a specific role in combat to fulfill.
“Mind” stat Balance - it won’t be the all-important stat in combat that it is now.
Make all species viable in combat – Different species will have different advantages based on their stats.
Dramatically reduce probability of “first strike” always determining victory.
• Improved Visuals
Enhanced weapon effects - more effects all around.
Counter-move and Recovery effects – You now have ways to recover from attacks - no more one sided combat!
State (DoT, Diseased, etc.) effects - new state effects and dots balanced with moves and counter moves.
Hit reaction effects - new visual effects increase the feel and pace of combat so players can react.
New Weapons Types - Added weapon types with their own visuals.
2. Create Interdependence
• Improve Professions
Professions now have unique roles in a group and make all roles useful.
Profession archetypes are more likely to be special and sought after.
• New Death and Incapacitation Rules
Change to the way HAM interacts with death - group with friends to increase your overall stopping power.
• Weapons and Armor Interaction
Profession specific benefits for wearing armor based on Profession - new roles for different armor types to prevent any one set of armor from being "the best".
Armor types are affected differently by different weapons. – there should no longer be a “best” weapon.
• High End Content
Tough NPCs and creatures will require groups to take them down.
Buffs and HAM drain/regeneration put back into balance.
Players can still solo character advancement.
3. Make Combat Feel More like Star Wars
• Look and Feel
Added new faction armor – four new armor sets.
New weapon balance makes all the Star Wars weapons usable in combat
Stormtrooper armor is now viable in combat – wear it with pride!
• Ranged Combat
Make ranged combat more interesting and important - we are working to extend combat range.
Prevent ability to make one’s self immune to range damage - No more unbeatable stacker templates.
New ranged weapons – more blasters, more blasters!
Blair
Producer
Combat Upgrade Overview 2
Greetings...
I’m Blair, producer for Star Wars Galaxies and more specifically in charge of the Combat Upgrade (CU) project. I’ve been around for a while now, and many of you may recognize me from when I worked on the Live team. In the upcoming weeks you will start to see what Combat Upgrade is all about. Next week, I’ll have a development diary set up, where you can see what happens on a daily basis. The diary will let you in on what changes we make, what feedback you give, and what the daily work on Combat Upgrade actually is. What we’ve got today is the first round of public documentation which talks about the hard work the CU team is doing. Our plan is to review the feedback this weekend, and prepare a response of the most frequently cited issues next week. Have a read. (It’s long!)
Combat Upgrade Update We looked at the current combat system in SWG and iterated designs several times to be sure that it is on target with your input for the system and for our overall mission which is to make SWG more fun, more accessible (easy to understand, hard to master) and Star Wars-centric. During this process we worked to make every system easier to understand, more engaging and more fun to play.
This vision document summarizes the exciting updates of the Combat Upgrade.
Statistics
Star Wars characters will now have a single hit point bar, called "Health". When health reaches zero, the player is incapacitated.
Offensive attacks are performed ultimately to damage your opponent’s health statistic in order to win in combat. Players continue to perform special actions in combat that they receive during their character’s advancement. These actions draw from two point pools "Action" and "Mind". You must have the required number of pool points to perform the action.
There will be no more stat migration capability.
Players no longer have the so-called "drain" stats: Strength, Quickness, and Focus. They will continue to have the recharge stats "Constitution", "Stamina", and "Willpower", however they will be called "health regeneration rate", "action regeneration rate", and "mind regeneration rate".
Species differentiation will be defined by different regeneration stats, skill mods, and minor special abilities.
The only wounds a player can receive are health wounds. All other wound types will be removed from the game.
Health, Action, Mind pools
A character's maximum health will increase with the character's combat level up to 300%. New character health will be 1000, maxed character health will be 3000.
Players will be able to reference their combat level.
Short term buffs will modify this health value no more than 20%.
Long term buffs will modify this health value no more than 10%.
Species modifiers will affect no more than 10% of a base statistic.
Special Actions
The following profession trees will be modified by adding and removing new special abilities to bring them in line with the new system: Marksmen, Medic, Brawler, Scout, Riflemen, Pistoleer, Carbineer, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Commando, Pikeman, Swordsman, Fencer, Jedi, TKA, Doctor, Combat Medic.
All of the above professions will be re-balanced so that mastery requires a more equal number of skill points for each of the elite professions. No player will be able to master three elite combat professions.
The profession trees for Entertainers, Musicians, Dancers and Image Designers will be affected by the Combat Upgrade, and will likely need some profession tweaking because of the changes with wounds, stat migration and buffs to the mind. We will make adjustments to entertainers by creating some long lasting, minor buffs for combat professions. The initial changes to these professions will be:
Profession Dancer
Added new dance (Tumble) to Dancing Knowledge I
Added new dance (Tumble2) to Dancing Knowledge II
Added new dance (Breakdance) to Dancing Knowledge III
Added new dance (Breakdance2) to Dancing Knowledge IV
Removed the 15 second delay between stopping one song or dance and starting a new song or dance.
Removed chance of making a mistake while dancing.
Profession Musician
Added new song (Starwars4) to Novice Musician skill box.
Added new song (Funk) to Music Knowledge II.
Removed the 15 second delay between stopping one song or dance and starting a new song or dance.
Profession - Image Designer
Reduced Image Designer skill point costs by 16 by reducing each skill box between Novice Image Designer and Master Image Designer by one point.
Removed Image Designer action timers for Body and Cosmetic changes.
Special Actions (continued)
Players that have skill boxes in one of these affected professions will be allowed a skill re-spec for their character. This does not include the force sensitive skills. (A re-spec is short for "respecify". It is the chance to choose new skills for your character).
Special actions will follow a more traditional "3 phase" execution: Wind-up, Execution, and Cool-down. Certain actions don’t have a windup and will execute instantly.
The wind-up phase is the time from when the player begins a special move to when the move takes effect. During this time, there will be a UI element, visible particle effects (or animation), and sound effects to indicate the player has initiated an action. The length of the wind-up time is determined by the ability used, the character's advancement level and associated buffs on the character.
Some abilities can be interrupted in the wind-up phase by attacks from opponents.
Moving during the wind-up phase cancels the action. By extension, actions which have no wind-up time will not be cancelled by moving. (Many special actions will not have a wind-up. Wind-ups will be used for specials such as "Aim" where the player would be stopping to aim a weapon).
The execution phase is the time the special action uses to perform the action. It is determined by the weapon the character has equipped and any associated buffs on the character. During this time, no other actions can be performed. The execution time is indicated on-screen by disabling all other special action icons, by animations and particle effects associated with the action, and by sound effects.
The cool-down phase is the time after the action is performed when that action cannot be executed again. The length of the cool-down time is determined by the ability used, the character’s advancement level, and any associated buffs. All actions belong to a "cool-down group".
Actions which share the same cool-down group cannot be executed until the cool-down timer expires. Cool-down is visualized by disabling all icons in the same cool-down group. No sound effect or animation is associated with cool-down since the player will be doing other things during the potentially long cool-down phase.
While an action or group is cooling down, the player may begin actions that are in other cool-down groups.
Toolbar text will be updated to better describe each ability.
The icons for each ability will be redone in full color. They will visually indicate which abilities draw from mind, which draw from action, and which draw from both.
Weapons and Armor
All weapons will do a base damage of type of two possible types: "Kinetic" or "Energy". Several weapons will do additional elemental damage of one of the following types: "Heat", "Cold", "Acid", "Electrical".
Armor will resist a percentage of the base damage. Some armor will have additional resistances to the elemental damage types.
Armor layer crafting allows you to add protection against the special damage types. Raising protection against any element will lower protection against the opposing element.
Recon Armor receives a nominal bonus to energy protection and a nominal penalty to kinetic damage protection. This can be conceptualized as a free energy layer.
Battle Armor has even protection against all damage types – no modifiers at all.
Assault Armor receives a nominal bonus to kinetic protection and a nominal penalty to energy damage protection. This can be conceptualized as a free kinetic layer.
Armor layer crafting allows you to add protection against the special damage types. Raising protection against any element will lower protection against the opposing element.
Wearing advanced armor will apply de-buffs to your character such as slower movement, accuracy penalties, etc. Armor with basic cores will not apply de-buffs.
As your character progresses through the skill tree, (s)he will learn certifications for certain weapons and armor types. Until your character has that certification, you cannot equip weapons or armor of that type.
Particle effects for the “hits” and the “muzzle flashes", and the color of the bolts will be determined by the damage type of the weapon. The color for energy weapons will be red. The color for kinetic weapons will be blue.
We will convert all existing weapons, armor, factory crates, and schematics to use the new combat data wherever possible.
Buffs
The group UI will be re-worked so that you can see the buffs and de-buffs applied to other group members.
Healing/Doctor/CM Changes
Medical crafting will be handled by the crafting line in Medic as well as Bio-Engineers.
Doctors will have enhanced abilities that are enhanced with the use of consumables called enhancers.
Enhancers are on a 1000 point scale - the higher the number the better.
The quality of Enhancer charges will vary per ability. We are aiming for an average of ~20%.
We are adding craftable stimulant packs (stims) that can be used by anyone. Stims are one shot consumables that require no skill boxes to use.
The use of the different stims will be determined by the player’s combat level. (i.e., novice players will be able to use the lower level stims while the elite players will be able to use the higher level stims)
Players will use stims by double clicking them. Each use will consume one charge. Each use has an associated cool-down time.
Stims can modify your health ~10%. You can’t use your stims to heal someone else.
Combat Range
The maximum range for basic combat attacks will be 64 meters.
Melee will be effective at a maximum distance of 6 meters. This will tighten the look and feel of combat making it more "up close and personal".
Artificial Intelligence
AI will receive a general upgrade.
A hate system will be introduced to improve gameplay and make agro control more interesting and engaging.
AI will be changed so that NPCs and creatures make use of Action and Mind pools. This will give players tactical AI choices that can prevent AI special attacks. They will also use the wind-up/cool-down system.
AI will use special attacks including: healing, buffing, de-buffing, interrupting, and crowd control against players.
AI will use both range attacks and melee attacks to challenge and engage the players with the new combat system.
Miscellaneous Changes
Moving, getting discovered by an enemy by performing too many actions will bring a rifleman out of cover.
Several UI components will be changed to reflect the new system including: the character sheet, the stat migration page, the toolbar system, and the group interface.
Food, spices, and medications will be altered to conform to the new rules.
All schematics will be updated to ensure newly created weapons and armor conform to the new rules.
All creature data will be modified to re-adjust their hit points. Creatures will also have their attacks and armor modified to conform to the new rule set.
We will implement a host of new sounds in the combat game to make the system more exciting and immersive. Line-of-sight will be turned on for terrain. Players will be unable to fire if they don’t have line-of-sight to the target.
Profession Pre-requisites
We are revamping the skill point costs of elite combat professions to be more even across the board, though they will not be 100% identical.
OLD Profession Prerequisites:
Rifleman = Marksman, Rifles Tree (4 boxes)
Carbineer = Marksman, Carbine Specialization Tree (4 boxes)
Pistoleer = Marksman, Pistol Specialization Tree (4 boxes)
Pikeman = Brawler, Polearm Specialization Tree (4 boxes)
Swordsman = Brawler, 2H Sword Specialization Tree (4 boxes)
Fencer = Brawler, 1H Sword Specialization Tree (4 boxes)
Teras Kasi Artist = Brawler, Unarmed Specialization Tree (4 boxes)
Bounty Hunter = Master Marksman (Full Novice Profession), Scout Exploration Tree (4 boxes)
Commando = Master Marksman (Full Novice Profession), Brawler Unarmed Specialization Tree (4 boxes)
Squad Leader = Marksman Ranged Support Tree (4 boxes), Scout Survival Tree (4 boxes), Scout Exploration Tree (4 boxes)
NEW Profession Prerequisites:
Rifleman = Marksman, Rifles Tree (4 boxes), Marksman Ranged Support Tree (4 boxes)
Carbineer = Marksman, Carbine Specialization Tree (4 boxes), Marksman Ranged Support Tree (4 boxes)
Pistoleer = Marksman, Pistol Specialization Tree (4 boxes), Marksman Ranged Support Tree (4 boxes)
Pikeman = Brawler, Polearm Specialization Tree (4 boxes), Brawler Unarmed Specialization Tree (4 boxes)
Swordsman = Brawler, 1H Sword Specialization Tree (4 boxes), Brawler, 2H Sword Specialization Tree (4 boxes)
Fencer = Brawler, 1H Sword Specialization Tree (4 boxes), Brawler, Unarmed Specialization Tree (4 boxes)
TKA= Brawler, Unarmed Specialization Tree (4 boxes), Brawler, 2H Sword Specialization Tree (4 boxes)
Bounty Hunter = Marksman Ranged Support Tree (4 boxes), Scout Exploration Tree (4 boxes)
Commando = Brawler, Unarmed Specialization Tree (4 boxes), Marksman Ranged Support Tree (4 boxes)
Squad Leader = Marksman Ranged Support Tree (4 boxes), Scout Survival Tree (4 boxes)
Be ready to engage in the new, faster-paced Star Wars Galaxies combat system. As we finalize the various systems, we will continue to bring you updates and ask for your input. Please remember to keep your discussions constructive, we appreciate your feedback.
And again, please remember that this is In-Development. Things will change based on your feedback about the overall fun of the game. Looking forward to your comments!
Blair
Producer
Combat Upgrade Overview 3
The Star Wars Galaxies Combat Upgrade is coming to Test Center! We are very excited about the new combat system and working with you through the open beta testing process to gather all of your feedback.
The goal of the Combat Upgrade is to make the combat game play feel more like Star Wars, play more strategically, move at a faster pace and ultimately a more fun and engaging experience for players of all levels, from the veteran player to the new player jumping in for the first time.
The Combat Upgrade focuses on the entire spectrum of the combat experience, combat-related professions, their special abilities, and all of the weapons and types of armor in the game. Choices players make about each of these elements will be more intuitive and be significantly more impactful in the new system. Individual profession abilities and attributes, terrain and environmental elements will take on more consequence, making combat more engaging and fun.
After evaluating the new, enhanced method of combat, every player will have the opportunity to completely readjust their character's skill points to best match their play style to the new system and skill trees.
The enhanced combat system is only the beginning of the constant evolution of the Star Wars Galaxies experience. Enrichments to non-combat professions and continual new content publishes appealing to every type of player are planned for throughout 2005 and beyond.
What is the Combat Upgrade?
There are seven (7) core articles and a diagram describing the changes made to the combat system:
Combat Upgrade Overview
Core Combat Changes
Health-Action-Mind and the Combat Interface
Armor System
Character Healing and Related Profession Changes
Combat and Artificial Intelligence
Profession Roles Overview
Profession Roles Diagram
[Click here to see the documents in the In Concept Forum]
What to Expect
Testing for the Combat Upgrade will begin first with the novice experience, focusing on the skills and progression paths of the brawler and marksman professions. Following that will be a review of the intermediate level experience. Intermediate is based on a character with at least one master elite profession. High level testing will come once the intermediate testing is complete and that consists of characters with complete profession templates (2 to 2.5 elite professions).
At first, the character builders (blue frogs) will not be available as we focus on the novice experience. When we begin testing intermediate and high level combat experiences, we will make the character builders available and post information regarding how to find them and the focus of the tests.
The Cycle of Feedback
Each day, we will be posting Daily Bug threads and Issues threads. In addition, we will also post daily focus threads. Daily focus threads center on important areas of gameplay where your feedback is particularly important.
In each category, we will be looking at your comments regarding the skills, skill progression, the user interface (HAM, toolbar, targeting, etc.) profession roles, weapon and armor balance and general issues.
Another way we will request your feedback is through a daily poll. Each time you exit the game after playing a combat upgrade game session, we will ask your opinion on the current changes you experienced so we can remain close to our community's perspective as we work through all of the changes with you.
Test Center Prime
Once the Combat Upgrade Testing begins, we will all be playing in a brand new galaxy. The Test Center community's version of the galaxy, which we affectionately refer to as "TC-Prime" will be mothballed for the duration of the Combat Upgrade testing process.
How to Join Test Center
We encourage as many players as possible to join Test Center to get involved in this testing so we can get your comments and feedback. For those of you interested in joining Test Center , here is how to do it:
To use the TC-EP3 Test Center server, open the Launchpad as you normally would do so.
Read and acknowledge the Terms of Service
Enter in your username and password
After the game has completed updating; click the “Test Center” button at the bottom of the launchpad. If you are logging on to Test Center for the first time you will need to follow the prompts to install Test Center.
After the install has completed click the “Test Center” button and it will then launch the Test Center Launchpad . Next you will need to choose the server named TC-EP3Beta and go through the character creation process.
Thank you all for your support and we look forward to your feedback as we progress through testing of this exciting new upgrade to combat for Star Wars Galaxies.
NGE Announced
Greetings Star Wars Galaxies Players, Fans, and Other Denizens of the Galaxy:
My name is Julio Torres and I am the Producer on Star Wars Galaxies for LucasArts. We wanted you, the great members of the Galaxies community, to be the first to hear some exciting news about the current and future plans for Star Wars Galaxies!
Over the past year we have been working hard to respond to feedback we have gotten from players, fans, focus groups, and other research. This feedback has ultimately centered on one key area: the game does not feel like a heroic Star Wars experience. Currently, the early game has a steep learning curve and there is no clearly defined path of advancement or adventure. Many of our fans who bought the game did not see enough Star Wars style action early-on and ultimately left our world. It is our goal to change this and improve the experience for all players.
We are introducing a series of game enhancements to Star Wars Galaxies this month that include both significant enhancements to the live game as well as a completely redesigned experience for new players. The primary areas of focus include combat and profession and character development. The combat depicted in the Star Wars films, fiction, and canon that we have all come to know and love is fast-paced, action-packed, and visually intense. In order to stay true to the Star Wars fiction as well as to make the combat system more engaging, we have shifted the turn-based paradigm towards a much more engaging fast-action combat system where you control every move! After receiving feedback from members of the community, conducting extensive focus tests, and evaluating the combat systems of other games in the genre, we are confident this new fast-action combat truly delivers what players, fans, and gamers have come to expect from a Star Wars experience.
As mentioned earlier, combat is not the only area where we decided to focus our improvement efforts. We have also improved and brought more clarity to the profession and character development system.
Changing a live game is never easy. We realize that players do not like to have their experience altered. These enhancements will take some getting used to and for that reason we lined-up some incentives for the current players to enjoy as our thanks for your loyalty to our game.
We value our community and want you to stay with us. Our goal is to continuously improve the Star Wars experience, the one we all know and love from the films and fiction; action-packed, story-driven, Star Wars fun. With these features and enhancements we are setting the stage for incredible things to come for Galaxies with more announcements happening in the coming months.
I'd like to thank you all for your continued support of Star Wars Galaxies and for making it one of the premier gaming experiences online today.
May The Force Be With You,
Julio Torres, Producer - LucasArts
"I could give you my opinions there [about Star Wars Galaxies’ design direction], but there’s no point - even those changes have been changed… I’ll make an exception for the NGE. I don’t think you can or should change a game that radically out from under a user base. You dance with the ones that brung ya, whether they are the market of your dreams or not. They have invested their passion and built expectations about where they want the game to go. Changing things out from under them isn’t fair in my mind, especially given how they have been loyal to you in times of trouble. It’s like dumping the girlfriend who has always been patient and loving to chase after the supermodel who probably won’t love you back."
The Ex SOE Designer
Dan Rubenfield is an Ex-Sony Designer, relevantly a veteran of Star Wars Galaxies. He’s gone into detail about the story behind the New Game Enhancements - the infamous NGE - and candidly explained what was going on, what went wrong and why it was necessary. The one on his site is considerably more measured than what was originally posted - stored by SWG fans - where he’s a little sharper, advocating that those who only want to rant that he ruined Star Wars Galaxy should go and perform the act of fellatio upon a phallus. Om nom nom, indeed.
"After continual thought, I still think this is a worthwhile discussion. I am cleaning out some of the assiness so we can maybe have a legitimate talk.
If I have ever created something that you didn’t like or that brought
you sadness, I apologize.
That is never the goal of a game developer.
However.
Let us set the record straight.
Let us set the history of the Star Wars Galaxies NGE into something
that makes a little more sense to those from the outside.
First, some ground rules.
I am a game designer. I make video games. I manage teams, develop
features, and turn the creative insanity that is game development into
demonstrable and sellable products.
A lot of this manifests itself in the form of direct implementation.
Scripting, writing, hands on content development.
I do not sit in a room and give orders. Generally, nobody I’ve worked
with ever did this.
We provided a means to create something to make money.
As professional developers, it is our job to execute on these types of
creative endeavors within the context of limited finances, linear
time, and sometimes explicit creative direction.
Sometimes this context is direction from Raph Koster. Sometimes it is
to meet a marketing need, other times it is one of business decisions.
At times, I describe it as,
‘If someone asks for pink fluffy bunnies, we give then bunnies done to the best of our abilities. You might hate bunnies, but you make the best bunnies you can possibly make. That is your job”
That is what we do. All of this is tempered with reality. Sometimes things take longer than we’d like.
Sometimes things end up more or less fun than we intended.
This is the job of a designer.
This is what I did on UO, Galaxies, JTL and every other game I worked
and am working on.
So we were given the directive to make Galaxies better.
Not just make Galaxies better, but make it succesful. Not the 200k
subs it had, but really succesful. The idea was that we had the most
valuable IP in the entire world, and we fucked it up to the point of
having 200k subs.
And yes, all 200k of you were important, but 200k means nothing in the
scheme of things.
I worked on Galaxies for around 5 and a half years. That’s a long time.
I wrote the combat system, mission system, spawning system. I wrote
the combat model for JTL, implemented all of the development tools and
ship interior systems and more.
Hell, I implemented the original Jedi System in 2 weeks after we
launched. Not because it was how we wanted it, but because we had 2
weeks to do it.
I have the understanding of where we went wrong and how. I see the
misteps and how the experience was misaligned with what most people
wanted from a Star Wars game.
So, when the NGE push came along, we were asked to reimagine the game.
Not just small changes, but rebuild it.
And it was needed. When we were asked, we were bleeding subscribers.
If I remember correctly, somewhere around 10k a month. LOSING 10,000
subs a month.
Note - I think our subs were closer to 160-180 than 200k. It was a bad financial situation no matter how you look at it.
It was not idyllic. You can remember it as an amazing game, but it wasn’t.
Hell, all of you who recall the grand ole days of launch seem to
conveniently forget that everyone quit shortly afterwards.
It’s similiar to the UO rose colored glasses. Everyone remembers the
positives, but nobody remembers how unpalatable UO was before Trammel.
Nobody acknowledges that after Renaissance, UO’s numbers rose from
110k to 220k.
But I digress.
WOW was out. SWG was niche and clunky. Or so it seemed. There’s a question of how close we got to the product, how our perspective changed as competitors launched.
We were told to imagine something new and unique. To push it to the
next level.
Originally, it was specced as a tutorial. A tutorial
paired with a new marketing push, new and grandiose relaunch that
would recapture the magic that we missed when we first released.
But a tutorial wasn’t enough. We scrambled to come up with something
more impressive.
We tested out a new combat system on a whim. I did a quick prototype
and we discussed it internally.
The difference was the control scheme, not the rules. You clicked, You shot.
When we demonstrated it, the first comment was “Wooooah….”
And the producer left the room.
He came back shortly and was torn. He knew that we had to make the
change. It was THAT much better. At least, that much potentially better.
We did a side by side comparison. We tried to play the old system. We couldn’t.
However, we made a mistake. A BIG mistake.
Somewhere during the discussions it was strongly recommended that we
streamline our characters.
People wanted something simpler, more direct, more accessible.
We told them. “If you do this, you will lose all of our subscribers. It is that significant.”
The response was that we would gain more due to the marketing push and relaunch.
So, we pushed forward.
If I remember the dates correctly, we did our NGE conversion in 2-3
months of solid crunch. It was some of the heaviest crunch I’ve ever
done.
We had an immovable date, and an insane set of features.
We were working in parallel, maintaining old code on the off chance
that we would pull the plug on the implementation.
Note - We didn’t notify anyone about the change until 2 weeks before launch because until 2 weeks before launch we hadn’t made a decision. You basically found out when we found out.
We launched, the marketing push failed, and we lost subscribers.
It was a misread at an organizational level. Design, Marketing, Production,
community. You name it.
We made huge mistakes. We got too close to the changes. Design took something and made it bigger than it should’ve been.
We got swept up in the wave of changes and ran with it. And we fucked it up. All of us.
Note - To those who think I might be pointing fingers. I say it out loud, Italicized and Bold.
I f**ked it up.
Not all of it, but I made mistakes.
Some big ones, Some small ones,
Some that I’m still torn about to this day.
That is how things work. We make mistakes. We are not infallible.
We take these lessons and try not to f**ck up again.
That is the nature of design.
Did the buck stop with design? Did the buck stop with Me?
No.
When I say it was an organizational failure, I mean it. Design made mistakes, Marketing made mistakes, Management made mistakes, Production made mistakes.
Did I alone give the go/no-go?
No.
Did design alone give the go/no-go?
No
Did an organization, made up of over 200 people give the go/no-go?
Yes.
Does that obviate us of blame?
Nope.
It was still a huge f**kup.
Epoch grade f**kup.
I think it lost a lot of the Raphy goodness that makes MMOs work, and that was a profound loss.
That was a huge mistake.
But I think the control scheme changes were dead on.
Does that matter? Not really.
The point, the f**kup, the mistake that we made, was answering an
unasked question.
“Can you change an MMO drastically after it launches?”
Categorically, NO.
If we were to do it again, and wanted to make those types of changes,
you have to make a new game.
Relaunch with a new title.
Or shut down Galaxies and relaunch for real.
You cannot change it at runtime.
A lot of you were upset. A lot of you still seem to be upset. I’m
sorry if you feel betrayed, or that we ruined something you liked.
But I’m proud of the work I and the rest of the team did. I’m proud of
the choices we made, the direction we took. ALL of SWG.
JTL, NGE, Launch, Jedi F**kups. You name it.
We made mistakes. We made a LOT of mistakes. We crunched, we argued,
we fired people, we hired people.
But we f**king launched a goddamned game. We launched a SECOND
succesful MMO (post-uo). We made a f**king amazing space game using
the same f**king game engine, integrated action combat, interior
spaceships and in 9 MOTHERF**KING MONTHS, all while running a
succesful, cash positive product.
NGE was done in right around 2 months by a team of people.
I am proud of the work that we did, even if I am torn about the end product.
So those who think it’s about blame or credit or who ruined what or
how great it used to be when kids didn’t swear so much…
Take a deep breath and move on. Times change. Games don’t last forever.
Except UO. It’s still running. And I bet people are still pissed about
some f**ked up code I wrote in 1997.
That, I am genuinely sorry for."
Actually, you had a ton of stuff I didn't have. /deepbow to Vortex500
Reading through this stuff I love and hate the people who created what was so amazing. All the new people here and those with short memories...this is what is lost. The New Game as it is experienced, ack what monstrousness...How could they mess something like Galaxies up? bah.
Np my friend.
They had the Star Wars IP, they had a game with much potential(kind like a rough diamond) and yet they screwed it up... and screwed us, the Vets who put so much love and time into the original SWG community and game and wanted them to polish that rough diamond to something beautiful . Like our time,money and achivements was worth nothing. They didnt give a sh*t about us at all.
Oh well, Im over the whole NGE thing now, but SOE:s ugly behaviour against their loyal customers still gives me a sour taste in my mouth. /pukes
The Second Day Vet
WOW! This is the most incredible thread I have ever seen on these forums. So many memories wrapped up in the previous 11 pages lol. This is why we vets loved the game that was SWG and detest the NGE and deride it's defenders. If there ever was a post on these forums worthy of being stickied then you sir have nailed it. Bravo!
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
Some diffrent pages out of the original manual
2.1. The Nine Attributes
A character in Star Wars™ Galaxies has three Primary Attributes, each of which is connected to two Secondary Attributes. It's useful to think of a Primary Attribute as a fluctuating "pool of points" normally ranging from 0 to 1,000. Different circumstances in the game cause these pools to temporarily increase or drain. If one of these pools reaches 0, your character is incapacitated. The Secondary Attributes affect how quickly these pools regenerate. Secondary Attributes also control how many points are burned when performing various activities.
POOL DRAINS
As mentioned above, the Primary Attributes suffer various drains throughout the course of adventuring in the following ways:
NOTE: You can't incapacitate yourself by using combat moves or other abilities. You simply can't perform any actions that would reduce your pool below 0. If you attempt such an action, you'll receive a message informing you that you do not have enough points for that action.
THE ATTRIBUTES
Health: Represents your character's physical health, including how much physical damage he or she can withstand (in some other games, the Health pool might be called your character's "hit points"). Health can be depleted by many attacks, including a blaster bolt to the chest or the impact of a Tusken Raider' s gaffi stick.
Strength (Health Drain Rate): Determines the "burn rate" for any actions that drain from the Health pool, like using a special melee attack. The stronger a character is, the less Health he or she loses when performing strenuous activity.
Constitution (Health Regenerate Rate): Controls the Health pool' s recharge rate. A player with a high Constitution will recover more quickly from any attacks that affect the Health pool.
Action: Your character's physical energy. It dictates how often you can perform certain actions. Your Action pool drains when you' re hit by specific attacks, like a successful Leg Shot. The pool also drains when you use some special combat moves or use the Burst Running ability.
Quickness (Action Drain Rate):Controls how rapidly a player's actions drain the Action pool. A character with a high Quickness can perform more Action-related special moves or use Action-related abilities (like Burst Running) more often than a character with a low Quickness.
Stamina (Action Regenerate Rate): The rate at which the player's Action pool recharges. Characters with high Stamina are less likely to become winded by using Action- related moves.
Mind: Your character's mental strength, as well as a measure of his or her alertness and ability to complete technical tasks. Many special moves that require concentration (like Aiming) drain from your character's Mind pool. Certain attacks, such as Head Shot, can also detract from your Mind pool.
Focus (Mind Drain Rate): Affects how greatly a character's Mind-based actions reduce his or her Mind pool. Essentially, it' s a measure of a player's ability to concentrate when performing certain tasks. A character with a high Focus can accomplish more mental feats in a shorter period of time before becoming mentally fatigued.
Willpower (Mind Regenerate Rate): The recharge rate for the Mind pool. A character with a high Willpower finds it easier to regain his or her wits and recover from mental stress and exhaustion.
5.1. EXPERIENCE POINTS (XP)
In
Star Wars™
Galaxies, your character can advance by earning experience points (XP). There are actually several different types of XP in the game, each related to specific in-game activities. You earn Pistol XP for using your blaster to kill enemies, while you earn Unarmed Combat XP for defeating enemies with your bare hands and feet. Nearly everything you do earns you some form of XP. You can see what types of XP you have earned by reviewing your XP in your Skills screen (
CTRL+ Skeys) .
Experience points are the core component of the skill system. You can visit skill trainers (usually located in the Training Halls in all major cities), and "spend" XP to learn new skills.
XP TYPES
Many XP types are self-explanatory, named after specific types of activities or a profession. Methods for earning different XP are described under descriptions of specific professions elsewhere in this manual.
5.3. Skill Trainers
To learn a skill, your character must train with a suitable teacher. Throughout the galaxy, you' ll find numerous NPCs called "trainers," each associated with a given profession. A Marksman trainer can teach you all skills related to the Marksman profession. Trainers for all Starting Professions are found in virtually every major city. Use the radial menu to converse with an NPC to learn what skills he or she can teach you.
5.4. Apprenticeship
Star Wars™
Galaxies also offers players the opportunity to teach one another certain skills. In fact, the concept of apprenticeship is key for advancement in some professions.
Some skills require Apprenticeship XP. To take an apprentice, group with another character. You can then teach that character specific skills that you possess. The other character needs to have any prerequisites, including XP, for the skill you want to teach.
Becoming another player' s apprentice has several advantages. First, you can learn any skills that another player possesses without seeking out an NPC skill trainer (thus allowing you to train in the field). Second, NPCs will nearly always charge for training, but you aren' t automatically charged credits when you learn a skill from another player.
7.4. Postures
A posture is your character' s stance in combat. Postures impact both your attack modifiers and the attack modifiers of your enemy.
Standing: Your character is only moderately accurate with ranged weapons, but provides a good target for enemies with ranged weapons.
NOTE: Standing is the default posture; it does not apply any modifiers to your accuracy.
Kneeling: Your character becomes more accurate with ranged weapons and presents a smaller target, but you are far less mobile and more vulnerable to melee attacks.
While kneeling, you receive bonuses to your Accuracy Modifier when using ranged weapons. At the same time, any opponents with ranged weapons receive a negative modifier, while those attacking you with melee weapons receive a positive modifier.
Prone: The most effective posture for ranged combat. The prone position significantly increases accuracy and decreases your chance of being hit by ranged weapons. Unfortunately, your movement is slowed to a crawl, and you are extremely vulnerable to melee attacks.
When prone, you receive large bonuses to your Accuracy Modifier when using ranged weapons. Any enemy attacking you with a ranged weapon suffers a significant negative modifier to hit. Enemies using melee weapons enjoy a significant positive modifier. In addition, if an enemy closes to melee range, you will need to change to a kneeling or standing posture to continue attacking.
You can change postures by using the corresponding Function keys, clicking on the Toolbar icons, or typing /stand, /kneel or /prone into your Chat Input bar.
< < < TRANSMISSION OVERRIDE: REROUTING TO NEW SIGNAL> > >
A BLASTER RIFLE'S NO GOOD IF YOU CAN' T HIT ANYTHING WITH IT. IF YOU' RE HAVING TROUBLE TAKIN' DOWN TARGETS FROM A DISTANCE, DROP TO A KNEE OR ONTO YOUR GUT. BUT CHOOSE YOUR TIMING CAREFULLY: IF YOU' RE ON THE GROUND WHEN YOU GET JUMPED BY A THUG WITH A VIBROAXE, YOUR FRIENDS WILL BE SCRAPING YOU UP LATER.
< < < RESUMING NORMAL DATA TRANSMISSION> >
7.6. Special Moves
Special moves are combat maneuvers that you can use to improve your effectiveness during a battle, cause specific forms of damage, or impose damaging states onto your enemy. You gain special moves by learning new skills in the game. You can review your special moves in the combat portion of your Abilities screen (
CTRL+ Akeys) . Any special move can be assigned to a
Functionkey (
F1- F12) by dragging its icon into the toolbar. When you initiate combat, your toolbar will automatically switch to the
Combattab for you.
All special moves have "costs " associated with them. . When you use a special move, it will drain from one of your three HAM bars. If the specific HAM bar is already too low, you won' t be able to perform the specified action ( and you will receive a message telling you such).
THE COMBAT QUEUE
The Combat queue shows each special action you will attempt to perform on your target, in the order in which they will be performed. When you do a special move, it appears in the queue to be executed at the next opportunity. If you enter actions quickly, they will stack up in the queue before occurring after appropriate delays.
There are two buttons under the queue itself. The Peace button stops your standard attack (although your enemy is likely to keep attacking you), while the Clear Queue button cancels all the queued actions.
GENERAL COMBAT SPECIAL MOVES
The special moves, which you learn through gaining skills, provide you tactical advantages in combat. Special moves are just that; special things you do periodically to try and gain an upper hand. All combat special moves have an attribute cost, either in Heath, Action or Mind, so you can' t use them indefinitely.
You can use a special move by dragging its icon from the Abilities screen (CTRL+ A keys) and hitting the appropriate Function key. Alternately, you can type the special move' s name in your Chat Input bar ( /berserk, for example) . The typed commands for each special move are listed in both your Skills (CTRL+ S keys) and Abilities screens.
< < < TRANSMISSION OVERRIDE: REROUTING TO NEW SIGNAL> > >
I DON' T CARE IF YOUR WEAPON OF CHOICE IS A BLASTER PISTOL, A RYYK BLADE OR YOUR KNUCKLES: THE TRICK TO WINNIN' ANY FIGHT IS USIN' YOUR HEAD. TRY TO IDENTIFY YOUR ENEMY' S WEAKNESSES, AND THEN GO FOR THE THROAT. BUT PICK YOUR ATTACKS AND MOVES CAREFULLY. SOME ATTACKS AND ABILITIES MAKE YOU MORE VULNERABLE, OR QUICKLY WEAR YOU OUT. JUST BECAUSE YOU KNOW HOW TO GO BERSERK IN COMBAT DOESN' T MEAN IT' S ALWAYS THE MOST EFFECTIVE TACTIC ....
7.9. Damage
When you' re injured in combat, you take damage to one of your Primary Attributes ( Health, Action, or Mind) . Your attributes regenerate over time or can be healed by anyone with the proper healing skills. Damage to both you and your target is displayed as colored, floating numbers representing one of your
HAMbars ( red damage numbers indicate damage to your Health pool, for example) . In some instances, damage will affect multiple pools, in which case the damage number will be a blend of colors. A white number indicates simultaneous damage to all pools.
INCAPACITATION
If any of your three primary attributes drops to 0 or below, you become incapacitated. Your character is not dead, but merely unable to act until you regenerate or receive healing. A Revival meter will appear onscreen telling you how long you must wait until your character recovers.
You can be killed if your opponent decides to perform a deathblow ( some creatures will leave you alone if you' re incapacitated; others will definitely deal the lethal final attack).
Your enemy automatically dies as soon as one of their HAM bars is reduced to 0. You do not need to deal a deathblow, except when fighting another player.
STRUCTURES
Many times during combat, you' ll be required to attack structures of some kind: a tent where Tusken Raiders live, a lair housing womp rats, a wall surrounding an important structure, or a power generator, perhaps. Structures don' t have HAM bars. Instead, a structure has a single, gray Durability bar. When a structure' s durability is reduced to 0, it is destroyed.
WOUNDS
A "wound " is a special kind of damage to one of your Primary Attributes. Wound damage does not heal over time, and will reduce your effectiveness in combat. A wound basically handicaps an attribute, making it impossible to regenerate that attribute to its maximum value.
Wound damage can only be healed by characters with the appropriate skills and equipment ( Entertainers, Medics, Doctors and Combat Medics, specifically), and only in special locations (such as a cantina, campsite or hospital) (Go here for more information about healing wounds) .
BATTLE FATIGUE
The final type of damage is called "battle fatigue." When you have been badly wounded in multiple campaigns, you may begin suffering from battle fatigue. Essentially, battle fatigue occurs after you accumulate a significant number of wounds. The more Battle Fatigue points you have, the more difficult it becomes to heal your other wounds.
Battle Fatigue points are not removed when your wounds are healed; they can only be erased by relaxing in the company of skilled Entertainers. When you find an Entertainer performing, target that character, access their radial menu and select Listen or Watch ( or type /listen or /watch) . The longer you spend enjoying the performance, the more Battle Fatigue points you will lose. (Go here for more information about healing battle fatigue).
STATES
States are another important component of combat. They provide you with short- term positive or negative modifiers when fighting, or cause other effects, such as an inability to move. Most states are somehow connected to special moves and abilities. If you fall victim to a Flurry Shot, you will suffer the Dizzy state for a short time. In most instances, when you enter a state the State icon will appear next to your HAM bars. During combat, you should keep an eye on your own states and those of your opponent, as they greatly affect how a fight might progresses. States can prevent you from executing different commands, alter how much damage you take, protect you from or make you vulnerable to particular kinds of attacks, and affect how well you can hit a target. All states are temporary.
Aggressive: Increases chance of delivering a successful counterattack and decreases chance of getting hit in combat.
Aiming: Provides a bonus to hit on the next attack.
Alert: Counters Surprise Attack special move.
Berserk: Provides a bonus to hit, faster attacks and damage bonus, but also applies a penalty to defense.
Blindness: Applies penalties to both offense and defense.
Dizziness: Creates chance of falling down when changing postures.
Evading: Provides chance of dodging an attack.
Immobilized: Prevents movement.
In Combat: Indicates that the character is involved in combat.
Incapacitation: Character is incapacitated (any HAM pool has dropped to 0) and is vulnerable to a deathblow.
Intimidated: Increases chance of being hit by attacks.
Rallied: Provides both a bonus to hit and a bonus to defense.
Stunned: Applies penalties to defense.
Taking Cover: Provides defense bonuses.
Tumbling: Provides defensive bonuses while changing postures.
That was an amazing ride. Anyone else miss old school SWG? I miss my character and the adventures. ::sigh:: My city mates and I had some wild times on Tatooine, which btw I rarely left. Amazing that I spent so much time in that game and rarely left the planet my character started on. Went offworld to do the badges thingy and to fight Imp's of course and to do some quest, but if I didn't have to leave Tattoine I didn't. I liked it. Miss playing there.
Pistoleer PvP templates
06-24-2004 11:46 PM
Master Pistoleer/Master TKA/Master Smuggler
This is one of my favorite templates as a pistoleer, it has it all. With this template you’ll have killer defense and some great offense. With this template it will be very hard for someone to use a KD on you successfully, so don’t be afraid to stand up to another TKA who thinks they can use KD2 on you. Smuggler will give you access to the best pistol specials out there. The combination of Low Blow and Last Ditch is great against any opponent. Some added perks of this template you get a very well rounded character that can easily participate in RPing as well as PvP and PvE and Triple Threat sounds really cool. Alternatively you can drop The Spice and Slicing trees in smuggler and go for novice medic which can be a lifesaver.
Master Pistoleer/Fencing Stances/Novice Commando/Novice Medic/Dirty Fighting
A pure pistol template. With this not only will you get the added speed and accuracy mods from master marksman, but you will also get the Launcher Pistol. The launcher pistol can be incredibly useful during PvP, not against actual PC’s, but against turrets and AT-STs. These two have no defense against blast damage making them very vulnerable to a master pistoleer with a Launcher Pistol spamming Last Ditch. Commando can also help you out during base destructions since it is needed to destroy a base. Dabbling in Fencer gives you a better chance of an enemy missing you since it will give you a large number of ranged and melee defense.
Master Pistoleer/BH Pistol
One of the best PvP templates in my opinion. This will give you the ability to target mind, burn and hit the speed cap. This template can be extraordinarily helpful against defense stackers since you get a great amount of accuracy to the point where you hardly miss anyone, except maybe a fencer with COB. Right now targeting mind is a big deal, and with this template you’ll be able to eyeshot people to oblivion. The two variations of this template are either doing Desperado and getting investigation 3 or getting Pistol 3 and novice medic. With investigation 3 you’ll be able to hunt jedi on the other hand with novice medic you’ll be able to heal you and your buddies. I wouldn't worry about the defense with this template either. Obviously it is low, but you have a high damage output, and your dodge from pistoleer will pick up the slack of not having a high ranged defense. Don't underestimate the value in terrain negotiation either, it is a valuable skill that can help you catch target who like to run away.
Other Template Strategies
Many people prefer having novice brawler over medic. Personally I use novice medic as it makes me nearly invulnerable to being incapped through the Health or Action pools. Brawler could come in very though, intimidate decreases the defense of a target and it makes them do only half the damage. Both will serve you well, but the choice is up to you. Getting some terrain negotiation from scout is also a good way to go, it is helpful if you need to kite a melee target and to catch running opponents.
Weapons
Geonosian Sonic Blaster
This gun is currently the King of the pistoleer’s PvP arsenal. It does stun damage so it’ll cut through most composite like butter. A krayt version of this weapon is obviously preferred , but these are very decent even without the tissue. I know many pistoleers limit themselves to only this weapon while PvPing. Bad idea, these can be easily defended against by PSG’s and stun layered armor
Modified Republic Blaster
My favorite weapon to use against melee weapons. These have a high range between minimum and maximum damage, but their mitigation won’t protect them against that. Krayted versions of these weapons can get up to 500 max damage with a powerup, and I’m sure they can go beyond.
DX2 or Scatter Pistol
If you’re a pistoleer use a DX2, if you’re a bounty hunter use a scatter. These have a good minimum damage which makes them good to use against ranged targets if you’re sonic blaster fails you.
DE-10
I don’t recommend this pistol to everyone. If you can afford attachments or are a BH/Pistoleer hybrid this can be your best friend. It’s not worth it to not krayt this weapon, if you can find the components for it get it krayted. Hitting the speed cap on a damage sliced gun is great. These can get to over 600 damage so one last ditch can easily kill an unbuffed opponent in one shot.
Other Equipment
Armor
I personally prefer armor with a high base and around 4% stun resist. This can block out other pistoleers and fencers with stun batons. This armor has some good HAM costs for what you’re getting as for resists, and it can usually be sliced up to 90%. Some people prefer to use armor with a higher stun resistance, but I feel that the HAM cost doesn’t justify the resists. I’m sorry to say that we’re still going to pretty defenseless against a rifleman carrying a Jawa Ion Rifle.
PSGs
There’s no doubt that the Imperial Personal Shield Generator is the best you can get. Stun resistance on them can be sliced over 50%. Plus they have better durability than any other PSG. Don’t rely on these for armor though, their durability is still very low and they do not always work.
Vasarian Brandy
I’m sure everyone has this by now, but I thought I’d add it anyway. You’re going to want the BE’d version of this as it can give you around 400 to all mind stats, and you can take it twice. Take two of these things and you’ll have an instant mind buff.
Vagnerian Canape
This is only useful if you don’t have a musician buff as every special will get to a pretty low mind cost with that combined with brandy. If you can’t get a mind buff you’ll need this stuff or else specials cost may get out of hand. These should give you at least 700 to your mind stats. I recommend only taking one at a time to keep your stomach free for the next dose.
Vercupti (Double-Buff)
If you don’t need any Canape this is the stuff to take. You can pop two of these at a time and get plus 2000 to all your primary stats. Once you eat some of this and get fully buffed you’ll be a walking tank and incredibly hard to take down.
Muon Gold
This is to be used only in emergency. In case you get into trouble with your mind pop one of these and your mind pool will be replenished. Be careful of the downer though..
Attachments
These are only for the very rich. You’ll want pistol speed and accuracy attachments, and maybe even some dodge. With these you may be able to hit the cap with a DE-10 which can be VERY dangerous.
Synthsteak
Personally I don't like this food item, but many people do. I would only use this if vercupti is not available as this fills up a large portion of your stomach capacity. With this food a percentage of damage will be reduced when being attacked. This could be useful if you get KDed.
Air Cake
I would reccomend this to a BH/Pistoleer hybrid who has relativly low defense. This food has low filling and makes your dodge modifier more effective.
General PvP Strategies
Run! - Don’t just stand still and shoot, we have the best accuracy while moving modifier, use it to your advantage!
DOT Weapons - Make sure you have at least one of these, spamming fanshot into a large group of enemies can be lethal for them. If you can get ahold of a mind poison or better yet, fire sonic blaster you’ll be toasting large waves of enemies in no time. If not get a modified republic blaster, don’t underestimate the bleed on these bad boys.
Know your specials - If you have Last Ditch, forget about Stopping Shot! Start off any encounter with a low blow to your opponent if you have it, it can give you the extra jump start you need to survive. If you’re a BH, don’t let people tell you Eyeshot is cheap! Eyeshot is one of the best PvP moves a pistoleer can obtain. Many people are armored and buffed so well they are nearly invulnerable to Health and Action. This is where you can use eyeshot to put your enemy down.
Don't stray far from your group - In large scale PvP encounters I wouldn't reccomend straying too far from your group. Walking around alone will make you an easy target and people will focus their fire on the straggler. If you stay close to your group though even if you get poisoned by a combat medic a doctor will be there to heal you.
Well that’s the guide, I hope you enjoyed it and it works well for you. I may add more to it later on as I discover new things. Don’t let people get away with making fun of pistoleer guys! Let’s get out there and show em all who’s the best!
Rangers Frontiering Skill Branch
What skill level is required to use each camping kit?
It is possible to use a camp that you can not make yourself
Master Scout: High Quality Camp Kit
Frontiering II: Field Base Kit
Yes, that is correct. I tested this on TC. Bizarre isn’t it?
Frontiering III: High Tech Field Base Kit
How do you make Wilderness Survival experience?
From Camping
The experience is provided when the camp disbands.
From Crafting camps and traps
You don’t receive system messages for experience gained this way, but you do gain it.
From Fishing
What is the maximum experience provided by each camping kit?
The following values are the maximum experience possible if the player is alone
It is possible to exceed these values if a player has many visitors, or heals a lot of wounds
Basic Camp: 360
Multiperson Camp: 640.
Improved Camp: 800.
High Quality Camp: 1000.
Field Base: 1100.
High Tech Field Base: 1250.
Tracking Branch
What is the range of /areatrack?
At Novice, the range is 250m.
Each level of Tracking increases the distance by 50m.
Master provides an additional 50m, for a sum total of 500m.
What items on the /examine window appear with each skill level?
Novice Scout: Aggressive, Stalker
Hunting I: Tameable
Hunting II: Hide Type, Meat Type
Hunting III: Deathblows
Hunting IV: Ferocity
Master Scout: Difficulty Level
Novice Ranger: nothing
Tracking I: nothing
Tracking II: Special Attack 1
Tracking III: Special Attack 2
Tracking IV: Base To-Hit
Master Ranger: Damage
Are there any websites that a player can use to look up resources?
SWG Craft provides up to date attributes on resources
SWG Creatures provides an Advanced Search that allows users to look up which creatures carry which resource
Both of these sites are updated by fellow players
Why don’t I receive a waypoint when I select an item from the tracking list?
The developers decided that Tracking should be a challenge to the player, and did not provide a simple waypoint to follow
Tracking does provide direction and distance in the higher skill levels which make it easier to locate the quarry
Why do I only receive 1 unit of resource from creatures in caves?
Spawns that are guaranteed to always appear in the same location are easy targets for campers: players who sit in one place all day and kill the same creatures over and over again.
Because of this, the developers made all the creatures at static spawn sites (i.e. caves) provide only one resource per kill, so a player could not easily rake in the resources from the same location over and over again.
What does the Creature-to-Hit bonus do?
Creature-to-Hit increases a player’s chance of hitting a creature.
From the in game text description, the skill is described as only working on Ranged, Non-special attacks.
What is a resource shift?
Resources are specific to a server.
When a new resource appears on the server, it is given a set duration for which it will be available for harvesting.
This timer is usually between 1 to 2 weeks. Though resources have been known to last less than a day, or greater than 3 weeks on occasion.
When the duration of the resource is complete, a new resource with different quality attributes takes its place and the process repeats with a new duration.
Hide / Meat / Bone / Eggs / Milk are all subject to these “resource shifts” and will periodically be replaced with different quality resources
This changeover in quality allows professional miners and hunters to play the resource market, by hording rare high quality resources and hiking up the price during a low quality shift.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
Questions and "Answers" part 1
04-22-2004 02:08 PM
Architect: What is the exact effect that the effectiveness rating on crafting tools and Crafting stations have on the crafting process and are they working as intended?
The effectiveness rating on crafting tools and stations influences the chance of success or failure during the assembly and experimentation stages. These are working as intended.
Armorsmith: Will factional armor ever be craftable and if so, how will it be implemented?
This is definitely something we would like to add to the game. Planning for the GCW starts in mid to late June and we’ll be discussing all the possibilities for this at that time.
Artisan: Will you give Master Artisans an increase in Survey range, such as 512m?
Probably not. The reason why we wouldn't increase the range or it would be difficult to increase the range is because the information isn’t available at that range.
Bio-Engineer: When will we get more documentation of the cloning system and if we can't get it, why? Every other craft able item in the game with experimentation lists percentages of what stat affects the final product. Even the most basic documentation is lacking from cloning like aggressiveness of skins, and minimum CL. The larger percentage of BE's that do not read these boards have no access to this information.
Bio-Engineering was designed so that players could play out being a genetic engineer. Genetic engineering is not an exact science in that duplicating results is currently a nigh impossible task. Hypothetically speaking, maybe you want to add a gene to a bunny rabbit to make a green glow-in-the-dark bunny rabbit, and it works and you have a green glow-in-the-dark bunny. So then you want to make another green glow-in-the-dark bunny but when the second process is complete, the bunny rabbit only glows 5 days out of the week instead of 7 because of some recessive gene the scientist wasn’t aware of.
Based on giving the profession a realistic feel, the profession in the game is not an exact science either. As such, all of the formulas are non-linear. There are random elements designed into the process.
Chef: All dev communication I've been able to find regarding digestion (including the publish 6 patch notes) has indicated 30m to go from 100 units to 0. Pretty extensive player testing shows that this is not what's happening, the actual time (on both Live and Test) is around 45m (give or take a couple minutes). Is this actually a bug, or was there an undocumented design change?
This is a bug that was reported by players and is currently being looked at by the programming team.
Core Systems: Are there any plans to increase the "Star Wars" feeling in SWG by redesigning the current language systems to be more useful? This would allow droids like protocol droids to actually do something worth while, as well as give more useful skills to some professions like smugglers (underworld).
There are no plans to address this currently. That is not to say we wont do that in the future, but the team is focused on more sweeping issues such as the Jedi Revamp, Smuggler Revamp, Combat Balance, Space, mini-publish and content mini-publish. There is a goal to improve the use of languages in the underworld smuggling skill tree with the revamp, but it’s more focused on the criminal and roguish elements rather than the more typical species languages.
Dancer: Any plans on giving the male dancers some attention such as some outfits for men and some dances or flourishes with a more masculine flavor? (new: they want to know about a buffed Loot wear item now too, Males can't use the Jabba Dancer Reward leotard)
A male wearable similar to the Exquisite Leotard (Jabba's Theme Park reward) will soon be added to the reward table for that particular mission.
Doctor: When/how will the fake bank tipping problems be addressed?
Very soon - - it was pushed to ffice:smarttags" />
Test
Center
today. The team is working on it currently.
Droid Engineer: What are the design rules/principles that DEs will need to adhere to when making proposals for DL20+ (Droid Commander) suggestions? Many want to help work up this system prior to Space so we have it fully tweaked and ready to go.
This is a tall order for a list of single questions, but it is a great idea. I will work with the dev team to establish some submission guidelines and get them to the correspondent.
Entertainer: We have heard that there is new music and dances in the works. Is it possible to get an ETA on when we will expect this? Are there any other non-specific details you can give us, such as how many new music and dances are coming, or whether they will go to the entertainer or the elite skill trees?
You can expect this in the Adventure Zone mini-publish for 9. The first set of new dances/music will probably be for the elite classes only.
Image Designer: Are there plans for our missing abilities to be made available? Bald, eye shape, male zabrak/twi'lek freckles.
Yes. This should all be part of the upcoming ID mini publish.
Medic: What are higher rated crafting stations and tools supposed to do for you, exactly? (Assuming they are even working, of course.) and how do droid crafting stations relate to the standalone stations, since we cannot see any kind of rating numbers on droids?
The effectiveness rating on crafting tools and stations influences the chance of success or failure during the assembly and experimentation stages. As far as the droid itself, it has a neutral relationship (does not effect) on the crafting process.
Merchant: Currently there is a lot of debate about the fact that there is no skill point check for managing vendors. Is it the intent of the development team that vendors operate normally even when owned by players who no longer have the Management skill required to place that vendor?
It was never intended for players to be able to keep and manage vendors after surrendering the Management skill boxes used to acquire them. This is scheduled to be fixed in a future publish and we want to upgrade vendors also, but it’s a bit early to start talking about that.
Musician: Can you at least give us some general timeframe for the arrival of new songs? 3 months, 6 months, a year, 18 months, an expansion pack, or (shudder) not until the Space Expansion?
Musicians will be getting a new song in the Mini-Publish adventure zone for Pub 9.
Player Associations: When will PAs be scheduled some development time?
As soon as I can manage it. I’ve been pushing hard to see some changes here, but it will most likely be a little bit before we can address some of these items. If I get an opportunity though, I will take it. My goal is to make sure that PA’s have the potential to play a stronger role in the GCW and maybe we can address some other issues at that time also.
Politician: To what degree do the devs want to involve cities in the factions and the GCW? Surface stuff like placement of Rebel and Imperial Banners, slightly more involvement might be on the level of allowing faction cities to pool faction points for citizens, or complete integration with the GCW including possibly attackable city facilities and substantial motivation for players to want to declare their cities to one faction or the other??
We want to involve cities in the GCW a great deal. There is a lot of opportunity, but it’s a challenging task with a lot of details to consider. To accomplish this, I’ve been working with the Politician Correspondent, Bajeezus on putting together a list of player proposals to work with the devs on. Since Baj is stepping down to turn his attention to his family and lil’ Baj that’s being delivered by the stork soon, it is a key issue that I’ll be looking for in the new correspondent.
Tailor: In response to our December top 5, the devs wrote: We are aware that items that have reached 0/0 condition are still equippable, it is not suppose to work this way. We consider this issue a priority for your profession and we are working to resolve it.
This issue is particularly problematic because completely decayed items not only are equippable but also still grant full bonuses from bioengineered panels or from skill tapes when equipped. In addition, there is a concern that if items become unequippable at 0/0, people will purposely try to "fail repairs" to get the item to 1/1 so it will never reach 0/0.
The Tailoring Community wants to know what steps have been taken to correct this problem, what additional progress still needs to be made, and when the bug fix will be patched in.
I’ve been pushing on this issue and it’s currently scheduled to be fixed in Publish 10.
Test
Center:
Will we be able to test the new Jedi stuff coming out in publish 9 or if we will be left in the dark to discover for ourselves (and effectively not be able to test it because of that). Meaning: will we be pointed in the right direction to start the path and begin testing of these next two critical Jedi publishes?
We are talking about this internally right now. We’re hoping to make a fun event out of it on TC2 (so as not to bring down madness onto TC
). As I get more details, I’ll announce it.
Weaponsmith: When do you plan for the "Weapon Rebalance of January" patch to go in and can you give us more details about what this patch will include?
I’ve been pushing hard to get the Combat Balance back on the schedule and everyone agrees that its high priority so we are talking about how we can best accomplish this. We're in the planning stages now and should see these changes before the GCW revamp. I want to help set expectations as best I can here. At this early stage, I would make the following comments:
- The biggest change in the Combat Balance that will be a "sensation", and by that I mean something that players will consciously "feel" is the HAM rebalance. That will have the biggest effect on game play.
- The next biggest change in the Combat Balance will be the data tables. The data tables are all the combat stats; weapon variables, armor variables, speed ratings, etc. We'll balance these things so that the game is a challenge and fun, but these changes won’t be obvious to anyone who isn't a number cruncher.
- Specials. The team will be assessing all the combat specials and working to tweak and balance them so they are fun and useful.
Please feel free to discuss these in the professions forums.
Community Relations Manager
Questions and "Answers" part 2
06-03-2004 09:56 AM
Bounty Hunter
On the tentative Pub. 9 notes (one on corr. forum) you had put down that the INVISIBLE MARK problem was fixed. Is it fixed and on the publish, but left out from the patch notes?
I checked with QA to make sure this fix was in and we are verifying it on Test Center.
Brawler
Dizzy currently only works on NPCs and PCs. Using dizzy on any creature results in nothing more than than the icon appearing beside the creature's name. Is it intended that dizzy not work on creatures and is working as designed? If it is working correctly, what can we expect to make this ability useful against creatures?
Dizzy is meant for PC’s and NPC’s and not creatures. There is a slight effect, but it is minimal. This is definitely a topic we can discuss further in our upcoming Combat Balance focus threads.
Carbineer
Nova, were you able to determine if just asking for basic definitions of what the state effects do would any more acceptable as a question, without the internal mathematics revealed?
There are states, postures and modifiers. Some combat conditions, such as Knockdowns, are actually postures. The states and their simple descriptions are as follows:
Aim: Gives an attack bonus, it can be used up to three times to get the maximum bonus and lasts for three shots.
Berserk: Increases attack modifiers and increases unarmed damage.
Blind: Lowers attack and defense modifiers.
Center of Being: Adds to the chance that block, dodge or counter-attack will go off.
Conceal: Allows a rifleman to attack a creature without it attacking them. A higher skill modifier improves this chance.
Dizzy: Adds the chance for the character to fall back down when attempting to stand.
Intimidate: Greatly lowers damage potential and slightly lowers defense modifiers.
Rally: Increases attack and defense modifiers.
Stun: Lowers attack modifier and slightly reduces damage potential.
Take Cover: provides a bonus to defense.
Tumbling: Increases defense modifiers.
Warcry: Adds a delay to the targets action queue.
Combat Medic
Since the start of the game, Combat Medics have debated amongst themselves as to their role in the game. Are we to be the best battlefield healers? Are we to be the offensive crowd/control juggernauts? What part did the devs have in mind for our profession in the overall design?
Without an answer to guide us, we've each chosen our own approach, taken our own paths, and made our own role. Some have tried to use the profession for pure healing, yet our healing abilities are far below that of our Doctor counterparts. Some have taken the role of chemical warfare agents and use their abilities to infect others with poisons and diseases, even though our offensive capability is extremely lacking in certain areas while somewhat overpowered in others. With the Combat Rebalance on the horizon, and all the major changes that entails, the Combat Medic community would like to know what role our profession is meant to play in the grand scheme of things after all is said and done.
What is the developer’s vision of the Combat Medic Profession, post Combat Rebalance? Are we to be Combatants with a bit of healing ability or Healers with a bit of combat?"
The developer’s vision of Combat Medics is to be exactly that - - medics that have abilities to heal players in combat. Optimally, the player should have the choice to make that decision to be “be combatants with a bit of healing ability or healers with a bit of combat” and this is another great example of something the correspondents and I will want community input on during the testing while the CB sandbox is up.
Commando
As Commandos, we have heard that many of our issues will be covered within the Combat Balance, but beyond that we have no details on the specifics being addressed. Specifically we would like to know about the plans for non-functional lootable Heavy Weapon Skill Mods (effect skills not present in Commando Profession since Beta), HAR issues.
This is an early answer and is subject to change, but one of our goals for Commandos in the Combat Balance is to change the way Heavy Weapon modifiers work. In simple terms, instead of the modifiers coming from the skill tree, the mods would be available through skill tapes and other means. The skill tree would then be used for something else (as of yet undetermined – there are some things on the table, but we wont know until the Combat Balance sandbox is live).
When the Combat Balance begins (which will be soon), the correspondents and some players will be brought on to a special Combat Balance server. We will support that with some In Development threads and other communication tools. I’ll also do some update posts, too.
Creature Handler
We have been told that there must be a delay on calling pets due to "exploits." However, the existing timer on calling pets after combat seems to negate any possible exploitive behavior already. Further, this creates a problem when running missions in a group... as players usually travel on vehicles (which most pets can't keep up with), causing the Creature Handler to wait 15-45 seconds at each lair for his 1-3 pets to appear. Most groups are unwilling to wait this long at every lair, and start attacking before the CH is ready.
Will you consider removing the timer on calling pets when combat has not recently taken place? And if not, please explain exactly what kind of "exploits" you think are possible that the combat timer alone isn't enough to prevent?
I will never discuss the details of exploit techniques in an open forum. As far as removing the timer on calling pets, it is something that the devs might consider removing, but it is a major hurdle to winning that discussion. The difficulty is measuring when and how combat begins and ends. Controlling that programmatically is a high level challenge. The machine can’t predict when combat is going to begin and end and can only react to it once it has begun and that is usually too late to prevent an unfair player death. When do you stop and start combat? I’m very open to hearing your ideas on how we might solve that issue so I can present the options to the team.
Fencer
Will Fencers ever be able to duel wield their weapons?
Yes, Fencers will be able to duel wield at some point. Probably after the Jump to Lightspeed.
Galactic Civil War
Can you ask if it is possible to get faction chat channel?
Yes, Faction Chat Channels are something that we would like to see in the game. They would be Overt only though. How do you feel about that?
Jedi
Our sabers have been changed to Lightsaber damage, which everyone is very happy about. However the addition of "vuln" to all creatures causes armor piercing 2 to not function, due to the way "vuln" is calculated in the armor system (It negates all armor piercing). This means that while nothing has an actual protection from lightsaber damage, everything essentially is getting a 56% damage reduction. This makes our lightsaber damage output extremely low especially in PVP. Can something be done to fix this? Possibly increase the damage on our sabers the appropriate amount would be the easiest solution. (As I doubt changing the core function of vuln to be a time efficient endeavor).
Lightsabers have been balanced against the system after the combat balance. For PvP specifically, Jedi Knights and above will be balanced for PvP play.
Marksman
With the upcoming combat balance are there plans to add to the master marksman box? (such as the proposed aim2, a longer duration aim command.)
There are plans to add something to the master Marksman box. This is something we will definitely discuss in upcoming focus threads.
Pikeman
What is the dev's vision regarding Pikeman.
What Pikeman are looking for in the answer: Profession definition, including capabilities (strengths, weaknesses) roles (group, gcw, combat) and goodies unique to Pikeman which we'll be receiving in the combat balance.
I am in almost constant discussion with the correspondent on this issue and the dev team is looking at the information. I know you guys are eager to see some changes and very soon we will be discussing all of these details. The most important component to this is to keep giving good, solid feedback to your correspondent so I can bring these opinions to the development team while the CB sandbox is live.
Pistoleer
Pistoleer is a profession facing some pretty challenging problems. We've been told that the Combat Balance aims to fix a lot of these problems. Can we look forward to sweeping changes (revamped specials, added functionality, speed, significant number tweaking, etc), or primarily only basic bug fixes?
You can look forward to sweeping changes in terms of functionality, speed, etc. But again, I stress, we talk about this topic a great deal in a conceptual form. The rubber is going to meet the road when we bring the correspondents and other players onto the Combat Balance Sandbox server. When that happens, we’ll be able to ask all the important questions and make changes based on the answers as opposed to all this nebulous discussion (which is a result of asking specific questions before specific data is available. All I can communicate this point are goals).
Ranger
Do the developers consider any part of the "Outdoorsman" proposal viable? If so, which parts might possibly be implemented in the future?
Absolutely. I am a fan of the "Outdoorsman" proposal presented by the Ranger community and whenever an opportunity comes up, I have pushed it as an issue and will continue to do so.
Rifleman
Why do we have +40 (or so) at 60m with a laser rifle, and then -50 at 64m? Will range modifiers be reviewed in the new balances?
Again, absolutely. These changes are the types of things we want to address in the Combat Balance.
Scout
The /forage ability has been a longtime source of contention with the Scout community. After the Chef revamp, the usefulness of foraged items has dropped to almost nil. Scout foraged items are used a cheap pet food and for fishing, but rarely for anything else. What is the Developer intended function of /forage and is there a plan to upgrade the forage-able items to be more in line with the Chef revamp or to make the /forage command more useful?
There is no plan to change forage, but it is something the devs are open to. Having any changes made to novice professions is going to be a challenge, but I agree that this is something we should lobby for change on.
Smuggler
"Smugglers have been promised 'love' since September 2003, which we believe is now coming in Publish 11. Mr. Stangl [TH] has stated that smuggler is 'more of a space profession'. Given that the expansion is being described as a 'twitch-based fighter', how, specifically, is Jump to Lightspeed going to bring Smugglers closer to actual Smuggling, as opposed to giving us stuff to loot, things to slice and having our own ship to modify?"
This issue is being discussed internally and as soon as I have some news, I will report to you on it. Sorry, but I can’t discuss it in any more detail than that currently. I know Smuggler’s are dying to find out what’s going on and as soon as humanly possible, I will let you know.
Squad Leader
What is the SL revamp timeframe?. It's still going take place after the combat rebalance, correct?
Its going to be released in the same publish.
Swordsman
The Swordsmen profession was hit particularly hard by changes to bleeds as a profession that had relied on large bleeds to deal damage against heavily armored targets. While this change sought to prevent certain abuses and imbalances the result is that bleeds are, for the most part, useless. With the combat rebalance will we see any improvements to bleeds that make bleeding attacks useful again?
We won’t see improvements in bleeds in terms of damage because of the very imbalances you mentioned. Since XP is tied to how much damage you do, there were situations where this was over-leveraged. To answer your question though, this is something we can, and will, talk about during the Combat balance.
Teras Kasi Artist
Can I tell the TK's that the Black Sun Razor Knucklers will be available with the combat balance if that is the case?
Yes, Black Sun Razor Knucklers will be back in the game after the combat balance.
Bonus Answer
What is the biggest, meanest, toughest critter in the game, and where does he (or she) spawn?
One of the developers who reads the boards a lot noticed the correspondent’s question and came up with this answer, “I was testing some changes for Publish 9, and figured that since I would be there for a while, why not host a royal rumble?”
(At this point, the dev spawned these creatures on the development server. For those that were in Beta, you'll remember what it looks like - - it looks a lot like Tatooine
)
Location: Grand Arena Flats, Tatooine.
Contestants:
Krayt Dragon Ancient - Tatooine
Peko Peko Albatross - Naboo
A Gungan - Naboo (Because who doesn’t like to see Gungans die?)
Lord Nyax - Corellia
Gronda Juggernaut - Corellia
Graul Marauder - Dantooine
Kiin Dray - Dathomir
Nightsister Elder - Dathomir
Blurrg Raptor - Endor
Gorax - Endor
Endraged Dune Kimogila - Lok
Captain Hassk - Rori
Mire Marauder - Talus
Mad Angler - Yavin IV
Acklay - Yavin IV
AT-AT - Anywhere they please
Believe it or not, the Acklay was the first to die. This was followed closely by the Gungan in a sort of, "Oh look, a gungan" sort of way.
What amazed me the most; was Lord Nyax coming in third out of that bunch. He stayed away for the most part and just plucked away with his blaster. Worked well for him until he got the unlucky attention of the Gorax though or he might have gone the distance.
Fight carried on in the way that fights do while I continued on my crafting. Captain Hassk and the Mad Angler had died at some point and I returned just in time to see the Mire Marauder go down. The Gorax and the Peko Peko Albatross were having a bit of a one-on-one duke'em out, the royal rumble not being their thing. The Krayt Ancient though was more than willing to welcome all comers; he appeared to be fighting everything at once and dropping them one by one. In the end it proved to be his demise with only the AT-AT, Nightsister Elder and Lord Nyax surviving to tell about it.
The Gorax proved himself to be the best of the two and returned to the fray, not liking the looks of the AT-AT I imagine he went for the Nightsister Elder instead. Kill shot though was provided by Lord Nyax, ever the opportunist, who then paid for the folly of reminding the two giants that he was still around.
Gorax came into the fight with more HAM but it appeared that the AT-AT was the one with the stronger punch. It really would have come right down to the wire but an untimely server crash will always have me wondering who it would have been.
Since the AT-AT does not yet spawn on his own, I guess the answer is: The Gorax of Endor.
Im off to catch a plane to Fan Fest - - see you there!
Have a great weekend!
Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl
Community Relations Manage
Well thats all folks. I have some more stuff, but its mostly junk, like "How to make a clicky" and so on. I really wish I had more, I really love the guides and the Astromech's. I really wish that all of us, that wish, could go back to the game that we loved(and hated :P )... but its gone now... so long amigo
I hope some of this info is valuable to anyone. I have never posted this much in a day ever... lol. Nice experience. Thanks for all of yours kind words about my post.
Well, Im off to a BBQ party now. SWG:AED FTW! SWG-NGE BOOO! lol j/k. Take Care all.
The Second Day Vet Thinks Springsteen ROCKS!
Have you asked the EMU lot if they would be interested in any of this? They seem very interested in fleshing out the details from the community at the moment.
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
Wow.....just wow. I feel many emotions - from wonderful warm and fuzzies over the fond memories to deep regret over what has been lost. If anyone doesn't understand how much the NGE gutted and dumbed down SWG, they just need to review these pages.
Great Work Vortex & Thanks.
Awesome stuff. I really miss the old game, seeing all these posts just made me remember why I loved this game so much. The interesting thing is you can see the gradual decline that happened in SWG, starting with the holocron grind. Which I never participated in, I absolutely refused to grind any profession I didn't want to. I still think the bests times of the game were the early days, before anyone had a clue as to how to become a Jedi. But I had some great times in this game from the day after launch (i had a hard time logging in that first day) and even through the CU I had a great time. I just couldn't hang with the NGE though.
Man I miss the old game.
Going through this though also reminds me of all the lies, mismanagement and arrogance of the SOE staff.....
I miss being a master droid engineer even though droids really had no purpose. They did make great pets and great house decorations. I always wanted to be a a Jawa and travel Tatooine selling droids on a sandcrawler. I am sorry to say that will never happen now....maybe I might make my own HL II mod just for that and call it "Jawa".
I have to add this on- someone should post this in the SWG boards as new game suggestions.
" remember n00bs: DON'T HIT THE LAIR IF CRITTERS ARE OUT
" is by far the best sentence in this collection of text. lol
Well all Vets got to remember the 20 man groups hunting Squills outside bestine. "Squill group forming! Meet at the Bridge! Take missions to the west!". A random pickup group with 20 different levels of game experience and "levels",some with two masteries and some with just a couple of skill boxes.
While some of the group was already at the first mission lair, some was still in bestine and picking missions. lol... Someone had to go and guide the newcomers, to the game, to the mission lair. Every damn time. Then the total mayhem started. At first it usually worked pretty good with tapping the lair and spawn only a little of the squills at the time. Clean it up and repeat.
But after a couple of lairs ...chaos. Suddenly that newcomer starts to spam specials on the lair and the Squills literary poured out of the lair. The once 20 man strong group split up into 4 small groups being chased by handfull of squills each. All running around at diffrent directions in panic, while screaming "Dont shoot the lair damn it!". Sometimes we died, and some times we lived.
The thing is... usually no one was mad at the beginner player. No "n00b!" or smack talk. The Scout / Ranger in the group set up a camp. We sat there and talked for 10-20 minutes, helping the lower lvls by training them in skill boxes and giving them some spare weapons we might have. Sometimes we almost forgot the hunt, talking and laughing and so on in the camp. Then we continued the hunts for hours.
When you look at the NGE now and people yelling at 1 minute "time sink" at the starports, well it all was diffrent back then. More relaxed, more social. No one was in a real hurry. The game had more soul and warmth, the few times I have played the game now it feels so cold,shallow and speeded up.
The sad part is that sometimes I really miss that relaxed SWG we used to play. And knowing it doesn't coming back feels really bad sometimes. And reading these documents aren't making it any better. He he he.
A game company that takes away the game from their loyal playerbase and replace it with shit, aint it weird? I mean I understand that they want to make as much money out of us gamers as possible. But shouldnt they instead of develop and replacing the game with shit, try to concentrate on the actual game and make it work, and in that way keep their current playerbase while attracting new players.
(here it comes :P ) Its like I come to the repair shop with my car and instead of fixing the problems with my car, they cut of the roof, they rip off the hood. They flatens the tires and takes a piss in the glove compartment. They fill up the backseat with shit and then when I come back for my car they say... "Well ...you got to learn to live with it". Then they try to sell the car to some kid out on the street, but the kid knows what shit are so he doesnt buy it.. Then they gets really sad and bow their head in shame. Hello!? Im your customer! Why do you treat me like this. No other company I know of would try to screw,upset their customers to make money. Aint a happy paying customer a better one, than a angry not paying customer? Isnt a happy paying customer what they try to achieve with their company? Are they actually trying to lose money and customers? Weird.
Sorry for the rant... ^^^ Bitterness ... I try to stay away from it, its no good for me. Ohwell... I quote Ren & Stimpy "happy, happy, joy, joy..."
Take care all and "DONT HIT THE LAIR!"
The Second Day Vet
Wookiee Armor Concept
This concept for Wookiee armor incorporates much of what is known about Wookiee culture. Although certainly capable of creating and repairing advanced technology, Wookiees often build weapons and armor using natural resources from the world around them. This concept combines an emphasis on organic components with sturdy functionality that allows the Wookiees to combat dangerous creatures on their homeworld of Kashyyyk.
The above armor was added to Star Wars Galaxies on March 30th, 2004. We're already creating concepts for additional armor for Wookiees, to be added in the future. Here is the Kashyyykian Hunting Armor.
On their homeworld of Kashyyyk, Wookiees spend a great deal of time hunting creatures for food and resources. In the lowest reaches of Kashyyyk's massive forests, hunting expeditions are likely to encounter extremely dangerous beasts. For protection against these animals and other dangers, the Wookiees have developed various forms of "hunting armor." The armor depicted here combines functional protective coverings with trophies from past hunts.