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Pub 27 and some really cool stuff coming
Wepps
Member Posts: 1,322
The fun factor for spies often lies in how sneaky they are and the types of cool gadgets they use to get the job done. This is exactly where we want to go with the first level of profession specialization with the spy profession.
As part of the Stealth and Gadgets changes, other professions will be getting some benefits as also. We're going to include those changes as part of this post.
Stealth and Gadgets Overview
Stealth skills are being made to be more fun, useful and engaging.
We are adding player deployable traps & trap triggers.
We are also adding the concept of hiding & detecting traps as well as detecting hidden players.
Stealth Changes
Spy's stealth high level abilities are being changed to be based on your Action costs. This way, you can manage your action cost modifiers to affect how long or short your stealth abilities will be in effect. This can potentially be infinite if you manage your gear and buffs the right way.
When you run out of Action, you will become visible.
Camouflage skill modifiers will drop on specific camouflage clothing. In-Game items that used the old camouflage modifiers can also be used for this purpose.
Smuggler will be granted the "Hide" ability. This will work similar to the Spy's Smoke Grenade in that you can't move or attack while using this ability to evade an enemy.
Jedi will be granted the "Force Cloak" ability. This is also similar to Smuggler's "Hide" in that you can't move or attack while using this ability to evade an enemy.
Traps & Triggers
Traps will be added into the game and you will have a variety of triggers that you can use to set off the traps. A player can deploy a trap in the world as long as there are no other traps close by.
4 new trap types will be available from faction recruiters. Here they are:
HX2 Mines: These are heavy, explosive mines that can be used by Commandos only.
Flash-Bang Traps: These can be used by Commandos, Bounty Hunters & Spies.
Caltrop Mine: This is a Movement Snare and can be used by Commandos, Bounty Hunters & Spies.
Kamino Dart Trap: This trap is a Poison Damage-Over-Time (DoT) attack that can only be deployed by spies.
2 different kinds of Trigger Types will be available from faction recruiters:
Remote trigger: This allows you detonate a single trap or mine from a distance.
Timer trigger: This allows you to set a variable timer to detonate the trap or mine after a specific period of time has elapsed.
Spies, Bounty Hunters & Commandos will be able to hide their own traps from view - - nobody at all will be able to see the traps.
Detect Hidden
As part of the stealth changes, we have some additional details that will enhance the following professions:
Jedi will be given the "Sense Danger" ability which allows them to reveal hidden Traps, Players and Creatures.
Bounty Hunters will be given the "Detect Camouflage" ability which allows them to reveal hidden Players and Creatures, but not traps. The exception here will be Force Cloaked players (which in fact cannot be detected by anyone).
Smugglers will be able to purchase Chaff Flares from faction recruiters which will allow them to reveal hidden traps.
Smugglers & Commandos will be given the ability to Disarm hostile traps.
These changes will be coming together to create a lot of new combat interactions and I'm looking to find out how you see these changes improve your professions and overall combat in the game.
I'll be checking the thread over the holidays, so please be sure to post your opinions and ideas.
Thanks!
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Hey folks,
I wanted to take a few minutes to post some information about the next publish we have been working on. The current plan is to have Publish 27 live on January 17, 2005. We have some new features that are going to be part of publish 27 that we wanted to get out in front of our community to start some discussion.
Here are the high-level bullets of what we are working on:
1. The creation of a new heavy weapons system that is being integrated with fast action combat. One of the highlights of the system is that characters will be able to target any area and fire their weapons as opposed to the current targeting which requires players to fire specifically at an NPC.
2. The enhancement of the stealth and trap game systems. This will include the addition of new class specific items and abilities for the following professions: Jedi, Spy, Smuggler, Commando and Bounty Hunter.
3. We are also completing some additional enhancements to the Jedi class that will include some new abilities that will be easily recognized by any Star Wars fan. I have waited a long time to use “Jedi Mind Tricks” in Galaxies and now I’m finally going to get my chance.
4. We are adding a “Go Home” Button to space that will allow players to hyperspace back to the space station that they have launched from. We are hoping this added convenience makes space a lot less daunting to travel in.
5. We are also continuing the effort to correct issues and streamline the content path we have created with the NGE. You will see a lot of content path issues on Mustafar, Kashyyyk, Tatooine and Naboo addressed with the release of Publish 27.
We are excited to get these changes to the community and I wanted to let you know what was in progress so you could see what we’ve been up too here just before the holidays. You will also see a lot of details on this in Thunderheart’s Report to the Community which will be posted later on today. Each of the individual developers implementing these features will post specifically about what they have been working on.
Thank you folks for all of the feedback you have been posting to the team. We have been reading through it and I hope we continue to hear from you on these new features as they are being implemented.
Regards,
____________________________
Mario Rizzo
Associate Producer, Star Wars Galaxies
Sony Online Entertainment
************************
Greetings,
We wanted to give you a look at some of the ideas for the Heavy Weapons upgrades scheduled for Publish 27 (Publish 27 is currently scheduled for January 17th, 2005).
When we bring Heavy Weapons back, we want to do it in a big way and here is what we are looking at currently:
"Location Targeting" is a new type of targeting method that casts a targeting reticle on the ground. You can aim the area targeting crosshairs and target an area to attack.
Some of the Heavy Weapons will use "Location Targeting" and some of them will use "Directional Targeting" (The specifics for each weapon are listed below). Directionarl targeting allows you to simply point your weapon in a certain direction without having to target a specific object.
All restrictions will be removed from Heavy Weapons and they will be available for all players to use.
Here are the three types of Heavy Weapons that will be added to the game in Publish 27:
Flame Thrower and all Flame Thrower Variants (Plasma, The Void, etc)
Target Type: Directional
Effect: Spews a cone of flames and sets the ground on fire. This will be an Area-of-Attack (AoE) with a Damage-Over-Time (DoT).
Acid Rifle
Target Type: Location
Effect: Spews cone of acid and creates a puddle of noxious acid. This will be an Area-of-Effect (AoE) attack that will deliver a blinding combat de-buff.
Launcher Pistol
Target Type: Location
Effect: Shoots small rockets into the ground that will detonate a short time later. This attack will deliver an Area-of-Effect (AoE) snare.
Some Additional Details
The Proton Rifle will no longer be classified as a Heavy Weapon.
Special Moves cannot be executed while using Heavy Weapons.
I'll be reading your feedback over the holidays, so please let me know what you think about this preview of the changes.
Thanks!
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
Comments
Still no CH or fixing the pre/post nge weapons/components.
Still no pre NGE rollback
sigh
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Don't click here...no2
It seems, this is only the first tier of heavy weapons.
There is also mention of mounted weapons which at this time are supposedly suffering client issues.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
More incoming from DEV:
******************
One of the things we will be adding to Space is the ability to hyperspace home!
Now, when you have finished your adventures in space and you're ready to go home, you will be able to make one easy Hyperspace Jump to get back where you started!
When you launch your ship into space, you start near a Space Station that is related to the Space Terminal you left on the ground. The "Go Home" button is a Hyperspace point that will allow you to easily jump back to the space station you launched from.
This should make Space flight more convenient by getting you home when you are ready without having to make extra Hyperspace jumps.
Dan Rubenfield
Lead Designer
Star Wars Galaxies
************************************
In Development: Profession Specialization - Jedi Enhancements
Here is a first look at the proposed changes that are intended to make Jedi a powerful melee class and give them some additional abilities that grow the profession to meet their namesake as a Jedi.
The focus is to strengthen the effectiveness of Jedi in combat by increasing their defenses versus damage and offering them more abilities to augment their melee focus.
Here are the new groups of abilities:
Strikes and Sweeps
Strikes needed more variety so we are changing some of the strikes to be sweeps. Sweeps work exactly like strikes, but they will be 360 degree attacks. Strikes and Sweeps will require a Lightsaber or melee weapon to launch these attacks (any Lightsaber or melee weapon can be used).
Focus Buffs
Jedi will be getting 3 new offensive buffs added to this group of abilities to complete the power progression through level 90. This will give Jedi increased damage (including melee) up through mid and high levels.
Force Throw
Force Throw will be changed so that it is now a single ability that can be used with any Lightsaber or melee weapon.
Jedi Stances
The Jedi stances are all being unified into one group of abilities that will all deliver strong defensive buffs. For example at level 22, Jedi will get an ability that will give them an immunity to Poison effects for the duration of the stance and cure any poisons that the character may have been suffering from. Another stance comes at level 54 which adds an additional chance to block or dodge incoming attacks.
The important thing to keep in mind is that highest level stances have all the previous benefits of the low and mid level stances. There are additional stance surprises up through level 90!
Force Lightning
We have reduced the activation and cool-down timers to this group of abilities.
Force Run
Terrain Negotiation will be added as a bonus to this ability.
Self Heals
We have added another self-heal at level 14 so Jedi will have a complete ability progression.
Force Chokes
Force Choke will be changed so that it uses the range of the special ability and doesn't rely on the range of an equipped weapon.
Special Abilities: Tool Tips that Matter
A lot of Jedi abilities have different sorts of restrictions. One of the recurring things we saw on the boards is that players weren't always clear in understanding which abilities used a weapon, which didn't, and other sorts of ability-specific details.
We will be including all of these details in the tool tip for each of the Jedi abilities, the effects and the restrictions are clear and easy to understand.
Jedi Mind Tricks
Rounding out this list of changes to Jedi Abilities is the addition of Jedi Mind Tricks! This exciting and iconic new ability can be used to reduce the Strength and Precision of NPCs, Creatures and Players by making them less effective in combat.
By using the Jedi Mind trick, a Jedi will be able to escape NPC's and Creatures with a wave of their hand. NPC's and Creatures will lose all interest in attacking the Jedi so he can "move along". At higher levels, this ability will affect all NPC's and Creatures in an area!
We hope you like these changes and I look forwarding to reading your feedback!
Happy Holidays!
EJDev
Senior Game Designer
Star Wars Galaxies
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And they are again mentioning bonus skills.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
Jesus, there must be half a dozen devs all over the boards. I can't keep up with them!
I've never seen such communication before.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
Looking Ahead at Thursday's Update!
We have one more update to the live service this year and I wanted to get some of the details out to you. Here they are:
The Level-Up Loot Item will be added throughout the Galaxy! These will be randomly dropping off of all creatures and NPC's and when you find them, you can use them to earn a whole level!
We'll have a fix for everyone who has been having problems receiving tells!
Tired of sending Trade Requests to other players in combat? So are we! We are working to have this fixed in Thursday's update!
We've brought you a whole bunch of new game info today and we hope you like it!
Please be sure to hit all of the In-Development Threads and give us your feedback on the proposed changes.
Thanks!
Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl
Community Relations Manager
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
Phenix1050 wrote:
It may be worth noting that just because you can't be seen doesn't mean you can't be "hit" by an AOE. In addition, the Smuggler's Hide and Jedi's Cloak are of short duration.
As a Spy, I support making it a reasonable duration. You can even make it equal to Spy smokebomb, so long is there are skills that make Spy stealth better (smokebomb could also provide a "blind" effect to the enemy, for instance, making the offense of that person slightly lower, or spies could do one attack while stealthed with a 5-10% damage increase). I like the idea of Jedi and Smuggler having a cool useful ability like this, and as developers seem to be getting, we should play addition rather than subtraction in terms of balance. So give Jedi and Smugglers a good ability that works for a while, but give Spies a slightly better skill in terms of stationary stealth.
And about detection-- will it be guaranteed? Or will there be a detection vs. camo check? Will there be foods to buff stealth, or items? Because there are items that help detection, it would be nice to have Spies be able to make camo kits that would act as a camo buff on specific planets, just like the old Ranger skill, but updated to fit the new system.
Helios_SOE wrote:
It's not guaranteed. The roll takes into account Detect Hidden skill mod (which you can get off of new items that I forgot to leave out of the items post) and the Camouflage mod of the two people involved, as well as level disparity, current locomotion, current posture and possible some other stuff.
A prone, stationary spy of level 85 with a camouflage mod of 100 would probably be nearly impossible to detect by a running, level 65 Jedi with a Detect Hidden skill mod of 50, spamming his Detect ability. On top of the equation, there are certain mechanisms in place that prevent you from detecting someone that you have recently failed to detect (i.e if you fail you detect someone, you can't just repeatedly spam your detect skill and reveal someone a few seconds later - if you fail you fail). This will hopefully decrease the probability of "reveal bots" around certain points of interest.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
I love the smell of desperation in the morning.
I love the smell of desperation in the morning.
I'd have to agree. That is what is so awesome about it. They are working their tails off to make SWG so fun that even jaded bitter-assed vets such as yourself will want to play again. One thing is sure: they have their work cut out for them.
Good to see you again AA. I don't know, it just keeps getting better. Even without all those notes, I was having a blast tonight. Go figure.
It does grow on you.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
Hmm copy and paste from Diablo 2 anyone?
Sounds like pure crap.
Cheers to the retards who get are still paying for this garbage.
NGE Refugee.
Why even post this? You already know that the mods here delete personal attacks based on the forum rules. Why even say something that contributes nothing to the thread?
Thanks for the update wepps, I guess I need to go check out dev tracker...
I don't care if they placed a babe under my desk to hum... still wouldn't get me back.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
They should have been working their butts off before they got some bitter vets riding them and tons of bad reviews. But I guess you cant stop people paying other people to eat doughnuts and spill coffee on the next publish format to be coded in the game.
The publishes should just start reading "More bugs and a few things fixed thanks for you money suckers"
PIRATE LORDS
If you're 10 levels above the enemy, they won't attack you unless they're GCW NPCS. The closer the level the enemy is, the further the agro distance is.
I dunno, THAT might do it, atleast for alittle while.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Well there is sound thinking, piss everyone off so you have to work twice as hard to get them all back. Good thinking Anarchy!
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
xWEPPSx wrote on the official forums:
This is great communication, and fantastic ideas.
It's good to know that concentrating the game to a few professions is already showing the advantages.
OMG Wepps! How far can you actually go? What did you get banned for anyway? Stalking the Devs?
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!
Great! So now we have Night Elf Rogues in SWG... Guess it was expected. We already have root and snare spells!
This game gets more Star Warsy every minute!
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!
Sounds like some great stuff! This could be a good game when it gets released. I will have to keep my eyes on this one.
Anyone know when its expected to enter Beta?
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!