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The first draft of the CU. For posterity... and giggles.
Shayde
Member Posts: 4,529
OK.. since the dashed plans for the original CU was mentioned, I thought it time to lay this info out. It WAS a closely guarded secret, and I never posted this anywhere before... but now it is kinda trivial.
This was the plan that all the alpha-testers for the CU were involved in. This was the plan they had to fix SWG before they threw it all out the window and brought us the CU we all know and hate less than the nge. I apologize for any typo/formatting errors.. it is long and copied from Word. I'm not fixing it.
Enjoy... and many Bothan spies died getting us this information.
Combat Upgrade: The Leak
PROFESSION
ROLES:
Why are
roles important? Having a solid, well defined role serves many
purposes. It gives a player a clear understanding of how they are
supposed to play the game and what strengths or weaknesses their character
has. In an MMO it also helps define group play. Every distinct role
that exists opens possibilities for more varied and interesting group gameplay
dynamics. Without roles every character is essentially the same with a
different appearance, this leads to a shallow game experience. On the
other hand, well defined roles add strategic and tactical possibilities and
allow for interesting and dynamic gameplay.
Ok, so
roles are important, but doesn’t SWG already have well defined roles? The
profession roles are fairly well defined at a high, theoretical level but the
actual implementation of those professions didn’t end up with the roles as well
defined as we would truly desire. Many professions share similar
abilities confusing the concept of who would fill a specific role.
Additionally many profession abilities don’t complement each other correctly
and in some specific instances actually work opposed to each other. This
results in unclear group roles and some cases creates situations where certain
professions are unable to work together at all.
One of
the strengths of Star Wars Galaxies is its skill based system. This
system allows players to customize their character to fit the exact gameplay
role and style they prefer. The very flexibility of this system led to
many difficulties when creating and defining the professions. It’s easy
to look at a profession skill set and think of it in terms of a complete class,
but this is not how the system works and would be an incorrect assumption.
In a skill based system each skill should give a clearly defined bonus or
ability and these abilities should not be duplicated if at all possible and
doing so only dilutes the skills and creates potential problems.
Professions
were not intended to be complete character classes; they are only logical
groups of similar skill sets with a common prerequisite. Going back to
this original philosophy made defining the profession roles a much easier
task. It also gave us the added benefit of allowing the bonuses from
taking multiple professions to work together in a much more meaningful
way. The hard part was deciding how to adjust the professions so that
each has a strong role and does not share key abilities with other professions.
To more
easily map out the profession roles we decided to create a visual map that
helped set up the broad role definitions and then set the profession within it
where they best belonged.
But what
exactly does this picture mean? We started with the broad gameplay
elements that would define a role, Tanking (defensive ability), Damage Dealing
(offensive ability), Crowd Control (battle flow abilities) and Healing.
Then we decided what actual key abilities would exist in that core role.
For example we broke Damage Dealing up into 3 key abilities, long range damage
ability, short range damage ability and utility damage ability (namely damage
over time-DoT and area attacks). By doing this we were able to give
multiple professions the same core role but in different manners. This
also worked perfectly with our goal for profession stacking because no one
profession had all abilities related to a core role. If someone wanted to
make a profession template that was the master of a specific role then they
could take multiple key abilities in the same role to be the best at that
specific role. Conversely a player could take abilities from separate
core roles for a better rounded character that is more versatile and less
specialized. We also knew that this design gave us enough key abilities
that no one character could have them all and a truly well rounded group would
need multiple players to cover all bases.
We
realized as we were defining the new roles that we were going to need to come
up with several new abilities. We needed new abilities to allow the new
roles to function as well as new abilities to counter and interact with those
roles. We realized that the counters were going to be critical to allow
some of the more controversial role, like Crowd Control, to work properly in
PvP. These counters will also be critical to support the highly tactical
combat interaction that we were aiming for.
With the
diagram in hand for the core roles and key abilities all we had left to do was
fit the profession into the key roles. We started fitting the professions
that made the most sense or would need the least changes to fulfill a specific
role. Near the end we had to make some hard decisions about which
professions would go into which roles and how that would impact the professions
abilities. Some professions didn’t fit anything well at all based on
their current abilities and would require an entirely new set of abilities to
fill their role while a couple of others required nearly a fundamental shift in
their role for where the profession was currently at.
Using
the balance diagram we began defining the strengths and weaknesses of each
profession. We decided on key abilities that would define that profession
and would not belong to other professions, though access to that ability would
always be available as long as the skill that gave the ability was know.
It’s
important to keep in mind that we used the diagram as a guideline not a strict
rule. Professions that were closer to a secondary role got slight
enhancements for that role. No profession ever fit perfectly but this
gives us a great starting point to work from.
Novice
professions were not considered during this balance pass because they should
not define a role in themselves. Novice professions enable access to the
elite professions which actually defined the roles. For example, Marksman
are not given a specific role since they are a novice profession, but Commandos
and Bounty Hunters are.
Below is
a summary of each elite profession followed by a brief description. The
primary and secondary role definitions are high level concept intended to carry
the basic idea of the profession. The core role rankings were decided on
to give a guideline on where that profession fits in relation to the other
professions for that specific core role.
Rifleman
Primary Role: Long Range Damage Specialist
Secondary
Role: Long Range Crowd Control (Position Control)
Offense:
Very Strong (5)
Defense:
Minimal (1)
Crowd
Control: Moderate (3)
The
Rifleman is an expert at long distance damage (note that one objective of the
Combat Upgrade is to raise the range of combat from the current 64 meter
maximum). Riflemen have a few support abilities to help them in this role
including abilities to conceal themselves and keep opponents at a distance for
a short while. Once an opponent has closed the distance however the
Rifleman is extremely vulnerable.
The idea
for the Rifleman is that they are the embodiment of long range damage
dealing. They should have abilities that allow them to maneuver at the
edges of combat setting up devastating long range attacks and shots from
hiding. Other ranged profession abilities such as Carbineer or Pistoleer
could be used to expand and enhance a Rifleman’s ranged combat options or melee
profession skills like Teras Kasi may be desired to allow the Rifleman to
better deal with opponents who would eventually close with them.
Swordsman
Primary Role: Close Range Damage Specialist
Secondary
Role: Melee Tanking (Mitigation)
Offense:
Very Strong (5)
Defense:
Moderate (3)
Crowd
Control: Minimal (1)
The
Swordsman is the heavy hitting melee damage dealer. Up close there is no
one that can dish it out like a Swordsman. The Swordsman has decent
defensive abilities but is unable to hold out for the long haul.
The
Swordsman is the close combat equivalent of the Rifleman. They are much
less about stealth and tactics though and more about raw brute force.
Swordsman abilities are all about increasing damage output and delivering
powerful crippling strikes. When combined with other close range
offensive abilities (like the area attack abilities of a Pikeman) a Swordsman
can become a truly frightening force to be reckoned with. Alternatively a
Swordsman may desire increased defensive abilities and take skills from some of
the tanking professions like Teras Kasi or Bounty Hunter to make a well rounded
template.
Fencer
Primary Role: Close Range DoT Specialist (Bleeds)
Secondary
Role: Close Range Crowd Control (Position Control)
Offense:
Strong (4)
Defense:
Weak (2)
Crowd
Control: Moderate (3)
The
Fencer is a lighting fast attacker who specializes in hit and run combat.
Fencers have fairly weak defenses making them less than ideal for standing toe
to toe with their opponent. Fencers have various abilities that help them
reduce their need to stay within range of their target.
Fencer
was a very tricky profession to fit into the balance scheme. Under the
current system, Fencers have some of the highest defensive abilities.
Putting them where Teras Kasi Artists (TKA) ended up might seem to make sense
but that opened the question of what to do with TKA. That would also have
meant giving up a significant amount of the Fencer offensive ability
particularly their bleed attacks and we felt that this was a very interesting
and defining ability of the Fencer. Instead we decided to emphasize the
offensive bleed abilities of the Fencer and make them the master of melee DoT
attacks. While this change wasn’t ideal it definitely felt right in the
big picture and left the Fencer profession with a very interesting and unique
role.
As a
primary Damage Dealing profession Fencers will have damage output second only
Rifleman and Swordsman however their attack style is very different and
unique. Their defensive abilities will end up being very weak ensuring
they must rely on hit and run tactics. Basic Crowd Control abilities
support their role as a hit and run combatant making them a very potent
combatant.
Because
of their weak defensive skills Fencers will benefit greatly from additional
defensive skills from Teras Kasi or Pikeman or a player could choose to widen
their offensive arsenal by adding Swordsman abilities.
Teras
Kasi Artist
Primary Role: Melee Tanking Specialist (Avoidance)
Secondary
Role: Close Range Damage Dealer
Offense:
Moderate (3)
Defense:
Very Strong (5)
Crowd
Control: Minimal (1)
Teras
Kasi Artists are experts at avoiding damage. TKAs have several utility
abilities to further help them survive standing toe to toe with the most
powerful opponents in the galaxy. Their damage output is only moderate
however making them less than ideal for taking opponents on their own.
Teras
Kasi was another profession that needed more significant adjustments to fit in
the profession role balance. Currently Teras Kasi are fairly powerful in
nearly every aspect of combat. This was just unacceptable for creating a
balanced role distribution so we had to settle on retaining only some of their
current abilities and reducing or removing the rest. First and foremost
TKAs seemed to be about agility and avoiding damage which sets them up as being
the primary Tanking profession. When combined with other professions that
have strong defensive abilities such as Pikeman and Bounty Hunters, a very
powerful defensive template is possible. We needed to reduce to the
offensive ability of the TKA to preserve the balance however. This is not
to say that they don’t have any offensive ability but nothing like the primary
Damage Dealing professions have. Teras Kasi can take profession skills
from some of the more offensive related professions to round out their combat
abilities, such as Fencer or Swordsman.
Bounty
Hunter
Primary
Role: One on One Combat Specialist
Secondary
Role: Medium Range Tanking (Mitigation)
Offense:
Strong (4)
Defense:
Strong (4)
Crowd
Control: Minimal (1)
The
Bounty Hunter excels at one on one combat. They specialize in hunting and
destroying their targets. The Bounty Hunter’s arsenal includes a fairly
well rounded set of abilities covering both offensive and defensive
abilities. Their only real weakness is that they have little in the way
of crowd control abilities.
While
the Bounty Hunter does excel at one on one combat their lack of diverse
abilities does limit their tactical opportunities when facing a group of
opponents. The Bounty Hunter profession is a solid foundation for
combining with nearly any other combat profession so that you have the ability
to remove many of those tactical deficiencies depending on the player’s
specific playstyle preferences.
Pikeman
Primary Role: Melee Opponent Control (Attacker Mods)
Secondary
Role: Melee Crowd Control (Attacker Control)
Offense:
Weak (2)
Defense:
Strong (4)
Crowd
Control: Moderate (3)
The
Pikeman specializes in controlling and tanking groups of opponents. In
addition to a generally strong defensive ability the Pikeman has the ability
significantly reduce their opponent’s combat ability. These defensive
abilities combined with some decent area attack capabilities makes for a strong
combatant.
The
Pikeman tanking ability is mostly based in their abilities reduce an opponents
ability to deliver damage. This abilities combines exceptionally well
with other defensive profession abilities such as Teras Kasi. A
Pikeman who is not specialized in defensive skills is still extremely useful in
a group situation as their ability add perfectly to the defensive skills of
other players allowing them to stay alive longer than they ever could on their
own. While Pikeman are not by default powerful offensively they do get
extremely useful utility abilities and area attacks that when combined with
other offensive professions skill, like those from Swordsman, allowing for some
devastating combinations.
Smuggler
Primary Role: Crowd Control Specialist
Secondary
Role: Medium Range Damage Dealer
Offense:
Moderate (3)
Defense:
Minimal (1)
Crowd
Control: Very Strong (5)
All’s
fair in love and war is the motto most Smugglers live by. Smugglers use
what is generally perceived as dirty fighting to keep their targets off balance
while they defeat them. Smugglers have very low defensive ability and
only moderate offensive ability, but when combined with their unique fighting
style they can comfortably hold their own.
Smugglers
are the preeminent Crowd Control profession. No existing profession fit
well into this combat role so we needed to decide on a profession that could
fill the role with minimal adjustment. The role concept seemed to fit
well with the idea of Smuggler combat and added some additional depth to the
profession. Smugglers will be receiving a whole new line of abilities
that allow them to temporarily remove an enemy combat threat so that it can be
dealt with at a later time. Smugglers abilities combine well with many
other profession abilities and will be vital in dealing with high end group
content.
Carbineer
Primary Role: Medium Range Crowd Control (Position Control)
Secondary
Role: Medium Range AE Damage Specialist
Offense:
Strong (4)
Defense:
Minimal (1)
Crowd
Control: Strong (4)
The
Carbineer is a medium range control specialists. He has potent abilities
to keep targets at a distance and reduce their combat effectiveness. The
Carbineer also has powerful area cone attacks allowing them to effectively
fight groups of targets. Once an opponent is able to close with the
Carbineer however they’re quite vulnerable.
Carbineer
crowd control skills are specialized in controlling an opponent’s
position. Slowing an opponent’s movement speed and pushing them back away
from the Carbineer are potent abilities for controlling the flow of
combat. These abilities combined with fairly strong offensive abilities,
particularly when faced with a group of opponents leave the player with a very
potent set of skills. Adding additional ranged skills from other
professions only increase a Carbineers power and options on the
battlefield. An alternative template combination may be to add one of the
more defensive professions for a well rounded combat character.
Pistoleer
Primary Role: Close Range Crowd Control (Attacker Control)
Secondary
Role: Opponent Damage Reduction (Attacker Mods)
Offense:
Weak (2)
Defense:
Moderate (3)
Crowd
Control: Strong (4)
The
Pistoleer is a lightweight combat specialist. They move quickly around
the field of battle softening up targets and reducing their
effectiveness. The damage output of the Pistoleer is fairly low but given
time and careful tactical control they are still fully capable of taking out
targets on their own. The Pistoleer’s abilities truly shine though when
combined with a well organized group.
Pistoleers
are fairly similar in function as a Pikeman. They are more potent in
their ability to reduce a targets combat effectiveness and make them slightly
weaker in defensive ability. While Pistoleer skills may not create a
significant power increase when added to many other professions skill abilities
they do create a significant increase in tactical opportunity.
As a versatile
close to medium ranged combatant Pistoleer can benefit greatly from other
similar ranged professions. For added defensive abilities a Pistoleer can
add Teras Kasi or Bounty Hunter skills or for increased offensive and crowd
control ability they may want to add Carbineer skills.
Commando
Primary Role: Heavy Weapon Specialist
Secondary
Role: Medium Range Damage Specialist
Offense:
Very Strong (5)
Defense:
Moderate (3)
Crowd
Control: Minimal (1)
The
Commando is the specialist of Heavy Weapons. An entire line of unique
heavy weapons are available in the Commando’s arsenal. The Commando also
receives many bonuses making them more proficient with standard weapons when
combined with other profession skills. Whatever the damage dealing
requirement the Commando has the answer.
Commandos
are intended to be the weapon specialists and are the final heavy damage
dealing profession along with Rifleman & Swordsman. Commandos
sacrifice a significant amount of utility and some defensive ability for their
potent damage dealing capability. Adding additional ranged profession
skills to a Commando creates a very potent damage specialist.
Alternatively Commandos may decide to increase their tactical flexibility by
learning skills from other professions.
Squad
Leader
Primary Role: Group Enhancement Specialist
Secondary
Role: Medium Range Combatant
Offense:
Moderate (3)
Defense:
Moderate (3)
Crowd
Control: Moderate (3)
A Squad
Leader’s power shows through the bonuses they are able to bring to their group
members. Squad Leaders have many various abilities to improve the
coordination and effectiveness of their group. Even outside of a group
the Squad Leader is a decent combatant, but their offensive and defensive
capabilities are only average with no special abilities setting them aside.
Squad
Leaders did not receive any specific combat specialty as they’re true strengths
only show when working in a group. We wanted the base profession to still
be a valid a balanced combat profession however so all Squad Leaders will have
the default suite of combat modifiers. Squad Leader can add any other
profession abilities to fit their preferred playstyle.
Creature
Handler
Primary Role: Pet Handler
Secondary
Role: Versatility
Offense:
N/A (Defined by Pet)
Defense:
N/A (Defined by Pet)
Crowd
Control: N/A (Defined by Pet)
Creature
Handlers are the ultimate in combat versatility. While they have no
innate combat capabilities of their own they are able to fulfill almost any
needed role as long as they have a pet with the necessary abilities.
The
Creature Handler was a very difficult profession to determine the proper role
for. Throughout the history of the game Creature Handlers roles and
abilities have shifted quite a bit. We will protect the role of Creature
Handler and make sure that they are balanced and have a solid position, however
historically we know that many people become upset when a “pet” is required for
a key primary role like tanking. Because of this reason we felt that it
would be ideal to allow Creature Handlers to be the jack-of-all-trades and have
their actual role in a group be defined by their pets. Depending on the
abilities of the pet called would determine the role that the Creature Handler
can fulfill in the group. We do recognize that right now only minimal
specialization of pet abilities is possible through Bio-Engineer Cloning.
We plan on enhancing Creature Handler taming and training abilities so that a
Creature Handler can shift a growing pet’s abilities to better fulfill a tank,
damage dealing to crowd control role, however this task will not be able to fit
within the scope of the initial Combat Upgrade publish.
Combat
Medic
Primary Role: Medical Combatant
Secondary
Role: Combat Healing
Offense:
Strong (4)
Defense:
Weak (2)
Crowd
Control: Moderate (3)
Combat
Medics are the natural progression of Medics into the combat field. Their
medical expertise turned to the goal of eliminating the enemy culminated in the
creation of powerful medical weaponry that can quickly leave opponents crippled
and powerless. They also have the ability to competently heal their
allies while in the thick of battle.
Combat
Medic was an interesting profession to define. The initial design intent
of the Combat Medic was to be the field healer. Doctor’s healed in the
hospital and CMs healed in the field. The addition of DoTs to the CM
medicine line near the end of Beta changed everything. Over time Combat
Medics have become more and more about their offensive abilities and less and
less centered on their healing. The concept of Doctors staying in the
hospital never worked as expected either because they had several key abilities
that required their presence on the field. The split of medical duties on
the field between Doctors and Combat Medics left some Doctors feeling
underutilized.
We
discussed several options and finally settled on emphasizing the combatant
elements of the Combat Medic. Combat Medics will retain their healing
abilities but they will always be secondary to the capabilities of a
Doctor. Over time additional combat medicines that increase a Combat
Medics tactical opportunities and power will be added however this will not be
able to fit within the scope of the initial Combat Upgrade publish.
Doctor
Primary Role: Medical Support
Secondary
Role: Single Target Healing
Offense:
N/A
Defense:
N/A
Crowd
Control: N/A
Technically
Doctors are not a combat profession but have included them here because they
are required to be in the field of combat fulfilling a support role.
Doctors
are the primary healing profession with the widest range of healing abilities
for both short-term and long-term ailments. Damage healing abilities of
the Doctor are specialized in single target heals while Combat Medics will
remain the most versatile field healer with their wide range of area effect and
ranged healing medicines. Doctors are also vital in the long term support
of combat units. Large combat groups engaged in lengthy battles will find
their effectiveness dwindles over time due to accumulation of wounds and loss
of combatants without a Doctor in their rear bases to heal wounds and revive
patients.
ARMOR
REVAMP
Currently
in SWG we have a situation in which the majority of the playerbase can be invulnerable
to most content in the game. A good portion of this invulnerability
factor comes from the extreme defenses that players gain from their
armor. Most players find it very easy to equip themselves with a set of
armor that reduces eighty to ninety percent of incoming damage. There
exists a few exceptions but this has become the standard for most players
exploring in SWG.
Armor
appearance is also an issue that irks many of the players. We have a
multitude of excellent artwork styles of armor available for use, unfortunately
due to the extreme power levels of certain armor only one or two types of armor
are ever used. This is also a sore spot with many of the designers
and artists. We have come up with a system that will encourage players to
use all of the armor appearances.
For the
combat upgrade to be successful we must change the way armor functions in
SWG. We will also upgrade some outstanding issues with the entire
crafting process. The goals driving the changes to armor in the combat upgrade
are:
- We want armor to protect players, while at the same time providing
a series of tactical choices that can be made both prior to and during
combat - We want to normalize the degree of protection that armor provides
as well as add a heightened incorporation of factional armor into the
field of play. - We would like to distinguish profession roles through armor
appearances by the use of various hindrances and profession skill
modifiers that mitigate those hindrances.
The new
system provides a much more interactive series of choices than currently exists
with armor. These choices will begin with preparation, as players decide
which armor to wear, and will end in quick, on the fly decisions on the
battlefield over which weapon modes to use. Dividing armor into new
categories and normalizing the degree of protection offered when the armor is
crafted will alter the past situation where there was a clear "always
best" and clear "always worst" armor choice.
Defining
Basic Weapons Changes:
In the
combat upgrade we have decided to alter the interaction between weapons and
armor to provide some interesting tactical choices. To accomplish this end we
have added several new features to weapons and armor. The primary change
seen in weapons is the removal of the armor piercing system and addition of an
energy level setting on a player’s weapon. This energy level plays a very
significant role when used against the various armor types. Below is a
new chart illustrating the new energy levels:
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled 
- Some deluded SWG fanboi who pities me.
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Comments
OK, if you highlight the areas that are black, you get the missing info... damn Microsoft.Here's some of the missing stuff if I can get it TO POST IN WHITE!!!
HAM REVAMP:
The current HAM system was designed to allow variety in the combat styles and tactics of the various professions. While it has a learning curve for the novice player it does provide a broad potential for tactical interactions.
The current HAM system has two key issues which lower its contribution to interesting combat. The first problem has to do with the nature of special abilities doing damage to your character and the second is the unique nature of the Mind bar when it comes to damage and healing.
The primary current HAM system problem is that it is no fun to kill yourself through doing required combat actions. To be most effective in combat special actions must be used. These special actions essentially do damage to your character in the current system and if overused will guarantee the death of your character. While most players can accept a certain amount of damage done in this manner the amount they are willing to accept is dramatically different per person. Finding a common ground that is acceptable to all players is virtually impossible and makes balancing the special action costs extremely difficult.
The second current HAM system problem came about due to the evolution of implementation during late Beta. Doctors have the unique ability to heal the damage they do to themselves through special action costs. Their ability to heal is supposed to be limited by size and regeneration rate of their Mind pool, but this is completely negated by the ability to heal that pool. During Beta, Doctors could use their healing ability (and any other ability for that matter) indefinitely. For this reason Mind healing was removed. This has created a situation where Mind damage combat tactics are completely unbalanced with any other tactic in the game.
The intention of the HAM revamp is to remove both of these current problems while remaining true to the initial vision of the HAM system. It is important to reiterate that, we want to address the shortcomings of the current HAM system while remaining true to the initial vision of the HAM system. There are many things that are good about the current HAM system especially the tactical complexity that it lends to. We want to preserve the integrity of the HAM system and keep this deep tactical interaction and as such we are not willing to completely redesign the HAM system to some simplified or different system.
Some amount of player discomfort will be unavoidable as they adjust to no longer being able to use their old combat tricks and have to learn new combat tactics. Ideally this learning curve will be minimal with a resulting game dynamic that is much more challenging and fun to play.
Overview:
The basis of the HAM revamp is to add a Special Ability layer to each pool. Each Health, Action and Mind pool will then have a Wound, Damage and Special Ability layer.
The maximum value of the pool is what is available as both damage and ability points when a player is completely undamaged. As the player takes wounds, the total amount of damage to be inflicted until incapacitation is reduced until they have those wounds healed. As the player takes damage the total amount of ability points available for special actions decreases. These special ability points will regenerate at a much faster rate than normal damage regenerates and will not healable in any manner.
This change keeps the core interaction of combat the same. Damage done to a pool reduces the available tactical options used by that pool. The key differences will be that use of ability points in a pool no longer risks death and healing damage done to a pool will not immediately allow a player to take more special actions. Healing damage only increases the maximum potential ability points possibly giving access to more powerful special abilities. The only way to regain ability points to perform a special action will be to wait for them regenerate naturally.
Issues:
Interface
Some way to display this new layer of the HAM bar will need to be implemented. This interface needs to be easy to comprehend and quick to digest during a frantic battle.
Because the special ability layer will be draining and regenerating fairly quickly during combat it should not be necessary to display hard numbers. A graphical method incorporated into the existing HAM Bar UI should be sufficient.
The following mockup was created for a how the new HAM system would look:
In the image above you can see the Health, Action and Mind bars in three separate states. The Health bar currently displays some damage with full available ability points. The Mind bar has received some damage and is still recovering ability points. Finally you can see that the Action bar has damage as well as wounds and is recovering ability points.
Hopefully you can see in this mockup how the bottom portion of the Heath, Action and Mind bars will be depleting and filling back up during combat. Clearly the maximum amount of ability can never go higher than the current damage level. Damage a wounds readouts are virtually identical to the way they read in the game currently though effort has been taken to clean up the overall appearance to make it visually pleasing and easy to read.
Regeneration & Drain Attributes
With the change to the new HAM system the actual affects of the Drain and Regeneration Attributes should be evaluated. Since these attributes primarily influence the cost and reuse time for special abilities they will need to be adjusted to be correctly balanced within the system. The regen attribute for each pool will also directly influence natural healing rates but at an order of magnitude slower than ability point regeneration. Total natural healing time should be comparable to the current Live game.
A secondary problem with the Regeneration & Draing attributes that can potentially be addressed is the progression of affect as the attribute gets larger and larger. Currently it is possible to get the drain and regeneration stats so high through various buffs that players have essentially no special ability costs. This should not be allowed in the new system. A non-linear progression method will have to be defined so the ever increasing values provide smaller and smaller benefits. This causes an effective soft cap where high numbers are increasingly ineffective while still allowing players to push they numbers high if they desire and rewarding them at least minimally for doing so. However, these numbers will not be allowed to get to a state that invalidates the core tactical interaction of combat. Ultimately this means that there will be a practical limit to the maximum reduction in HAM cost for an action and a maximum regeneration rate no matter how high the regeneration or drain attribute is taken.
Summary:
What exactly will the result of these changes be?
The modified HAM system lays the groundwork to enable tactical situations where players need to monitor Health, Action & Mind levels in order to be most effective in combat. The simple act of performing an action will never create a risk of death however the choices of actions taken could easily result in losing a battle.
Taking damage to a specific HAM pool will still result in reduced tactical options. Gauging ability regeneration rates and action costs and controlling the pacing of actions will give a skilled player the tactical control and opportunity to turn the battle in their favor.
Finally, the change to how the numbers work internally also creates a more stable system that is less likely to break down as the game continues to evolve and advance.
COMBAT REVAMP pt 2
End Armor Appearance This final combine is to determine the appearance of the armor. At this point option enhancements can also be added to the armor if the Armorsmith so desires. At this stage of the process the crafter combines the Core with some specific appearance parts, tailor components, and various optional potential future loot items. Since the stats were already set in the previous step, a Core can be combined with any appearance allowed for that type of Core. This allows us to easily add factional and quest armors equal to any other armor type back into the game.
The following Types of armor will be eligible to match up with the appearances shown below.
Type Appearance
Reconnaissance Ubese, Tantel, Mabari, Kashyyykian Ceremonial, (Factional)
Battle
Padded, Maruader, Bone, Kashyyykian Black Mountain, (Factional), (Quest) RIS
Assault
Chitin, Composite, Kashyyykian Hunting, Mandalorian, (Factional)
SLICING:
In the existing armor system, it is possible for a Smuggler to increase the resistance of armor by as much as 35%. In addition, the higher the resistances on the pre-slice armor, the greater the effects of the slice. At the high ends this can result in armor that is nearly invulnerable, while at the low end the slice barely has any effect. This is highly undesirable from a balanced game play standpoint.
In the new armor system, we will drop the benefit provided by slicing armor down to a much more reasonable value and to institute a method by which lower end armors can get a higher slice percentage than higher end armors. We felt that it was similar to someone making a tweak to an older car would give you a big improvement whereas the same tweak to a sports car would not yield as big an improvement. In addition, remember that as a general rule of thumb, any time general protection is raised by any method, the hindrances will also rise by a corresponding amount.
ENCUMBRANCE:
The combat upgrade overview document describes the specific profession roles we are trying to achieve with the combat upgrade. In order to facilitate that goal, we have limited the types of armor that professions can use effectively. Note that the differences between armor categories have more to do with the hindrances associated with each type of armor than with the degree of protection offered by armor. Each category of armor can achieve the same level of protection as the other two. The differences come in the weaknesses of each category and the hindrances associated with wearing that category of armor without the relevant profession mitigation skills. The initial armor distribution is as follows:
Professions Armor Max
TKA None
Smuggler Advanced Recon
Rifleman Advanced Recon
Pistol Advanced Recon
Fencer Advanced Battle
Swordsman Advanced Battle
Pikeman Advanced Battle
Carbine Advanced Battle
BH Advanced Assault
Commando Advanced Assault
SL Advanced Assault
Ranger Advanced Battle
CH Advanced Battle
CM Advanced Battle
Bio-Engineer Basic Recon
Doctor None
Crafters None
Entertainers None
Novices None
In order to channel particular professions into particular types of armor, we have devised the following hindrance chart. Each armor category has three hindrances associated with it: movement, accuracy, and rate of fire. The degree of the hindrance depends on the type of armor- for instance; Assault has a very high movement hindrance but low rate of fire hindrance, while recon armor has a low movement hindrance but a high rate of fire hindrance. The hindrances will be hard coded into the armor and will not be able to be experimented on, except indirectly by adjusting the degree of protection provided by the armor segments and core. The TKA hindrances refer to the decrease in TKA defenses that will occur as a result of donning armor.
Basic Recon Std Recon Advan Recon Basic Battle Std Battle Advan Battle Basic Assault Std Assault Advan Assault
Movement Hindrance 0-10% 0-10% 0-20% 0-20% 0-30% 0-40% 0-30% 0-40% 0-60%
Accuracy Hindrance 0-20% 0-30% 0-40% 0-20% 0-30% 0-40% 0-20% 0-30% 0-40%
Rate of Fire Hindrance 0-30% 0-40% 0-60% 0-20% 0-30% 0-40% 0-10% 0-10% 0-20%
Defense Hindrance(TKA) 0-50% 0-75% 0-100% 0-50% 0-75% 0-100% 0-50% 0-75% 0-100%
To encourage various professions to wear the different armor types, new skill modifier reductions have been devised to reduce the affect hindrances. These hindrance reductions will be distributed at the appropriate boxes for each profession and will mitigate the hindrances that are hard written into the armors.
The following skill modifiers will be added throughout the specific professions where it is deemed necessary.
New Skill Mods
Basic Recon Armor Certification
Recon Movement Mitigation +20%
Recon Accuracy Mitigation +30%
Recon Accuracy Mitigation +40%
Recon Rate of Fire Mitigation +40%
Recon Rate of Fire Mitigation +60%
Basic Battle Armor Certification
Battle Movement Mitigation +30%
Battle Movement Mitigation +40%
Battle Accuracy Mitigation +30%
Battle Accuracy Mitigation +40%
Battle Rate of Fire Mitigation +30%
Battle Rate of Fire Mitigation +40%
Basic Assault Armor Certification
Assault Movement Mitigation +40%
Assault Movement Mitigation +60%
Assault Accuracy Mitigation +30%
Assault Accuracy Mitigation +40%
Assault Rate of Fire Mitigation +20%
Armor Hindrances will not be cumulative per piece like encumbrances are; the entire maximum hindrance will be assigned for even a single piece of armor being worn. This will remove any potential balance problems from min/maxing armor pieces. Additionally it should not be beneficial to mix and match armor pieces from different set types even when the player is certified to wear both types as the maximum hindrances from each individual piece will be applied potentially creating a hindrance that they can not mitigate.
FACTIONAL ARMOR:
We could not revamp the entire armor process without taking into consideration for the Galactic Civil War factional armor sets. As one can see in the crafting process, a player Armorsmith will be able to insert a crafted core into an appearance schematic. We plan on adding these factional appearance schematics as limited use draft schematics to the factional vendors. The Armorsmith will be able to go and purchase for faction points from the faction recruiter the appearances he desires, and place armor cores within the specific appearance types. From this point he will place the completed factional armor onto an npc factional merchant from whom other players can come and purchase the armor from for credits and faction points. The credits will go the smith and the faction will be absorbed by the system. We felt this created a nice niche for the crafters within the GCW to support their factional side and was requested by the GCW correspondent.
With the addition of the three new armor classifications we of course need new appearances for the different varieties of armor. The three types of armor will each get a different appearance.
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
Sooooooo basically they DID take a couple things (which funny enough is now gone) from the pre-cu-cu.
But as always, they ignored the players who HELPED MAKE THIS.. threw it out and gave us the crap that was the CU. SO bad.. they had to do it again with an even worse nge.
And smed deserves his job how again?
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
simple reason why they never implemented this revamp.....
World of Warcraft
I knew this CU was a mistake when I attended Celebration 3 in Indianapolis. I kept hearing the same crap from Tiggs and the two other devs there...."we want the game to have more broad appeal"
NGE Refugee.
Yup. I wish they had gone with this and worked from there. The story would be a success story instead of the tale of murder and madness we've seen.
(Shayde, I've found when copying and pasting from Word to forums if areas of text don't show up, you can drag over and highlight them, then go to fonts in the forum menu and choose white and you can see the stuff. No idea why.)
Athela
Thanks!
You just reminded me of how much I hated the CU!
Like the crafters were screewed when the NGE came out, us combat people (especially TKMs) were screewed (though, I admit, much less) when the CU came out. The Combat "Downgrade" was absolutly horrific and caused almost all solo ground combat to stop.
It is almost as if we're dealing with devs that cannot handle their pride being busted. The devs see all these players having fun but using the game's "weaknesses" to go against what they initially intended for the game. And they see all their "beloved" creatures getting killed by a solo carbineer or a solo TKM. So they find a way to restrict the game to force the players to do what they want us to do, even if the "having fun" bit is sacraficed.
And armor is too protective? Well, with the technology of Star Wars, an armored person with a blaster should be able to walk up to a village of Shaman cave-people on Dantooine, armed with nothing but stone knifes and staffs, and kill everyone there without even breathing too heavy. Same goes with a nest of Mountain Squills or a lair of Beatles or whatever. Ultra-Tech Armor is and should be sealed, hard and nothing that a Swamp Cat should be able to bite through. Sure, it is a game and every game must have some risk so feel free to tone it down a bit. But TKMs cannot wear armor? But a pistoleer cannot wear assault armor? They even admit that devs and artists "felt bad" that not all their armor was being used. Awww...
. Give me a break!!! Was this game produced for us or for you? Given that I pay for the service and the devs get paid, I'm guessing that I'm the one that should have been catered to. Not the devs and their hurt feelings!
They didn't like some problems and exploits players used with HAM bars so, to fix the problem, they removed HAM bars all together. Oh, well that makes perfect sence.
Next time I get a headache...
The CU (or CD, as I call it) was BAD all around. It was a bad idea that seemed to snowball into a catastrophie. And, as in any business, nobody wants to take responsibility or even admit to the blunder. Just blindly support it into the ground. It covers the pride bit I mentioned and when it fails everyone involved can safely point to somebody else as the cause. What a way to run a company.
edit: typos
Originally posted by Obraik
Maybe I'm missing something, but apart from the HAM stuff, that sounds alot like the CU we ended up with...
It's because you don't see the cu for what it was. It's like saying the nge was about new quests.
NOWHERE in all that was a half-assed level system. That was the evil core of what made the cu so bad. It was an adjustment to the existing system. Roles being enhanced, not marginalized. The level system is what made it such a bad system.
Just like the the horrible fake FPS thing is the core of the nge and makes IT so unplayable. That's why they can do nothing to improve this game without rolling back that will make the game playable.
It is rotten...To the core.
And P.S. I tried the whole highlight thing 100 times. damn microsoft crap.
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
Ok.. I never understodd this.... The game is called Starwars.... You have the starwars fans who like and will play it. Why would you dramtically alter a game so people who play say WoW would lik eplaying this game? I mean you are going to have people who arent die hard SWG fans come and try out the game, same with the D and D crowd etc etc... But isnt the ultimate goal of a specific title game to draw in those fans? Once you alter the basic premis and go after a broader base you are going away from what brougt in the players to begin with. You start with something specific that the fans know about... You then alter it or water it down so people who have never watched all 3 origional episodes or read any opf the starwars books can jump right in and play. Can anyone explain to me why this strategy would bring people in? You know have taken the die hards nad pretty much pooped on thir parade, because by changing the fundamnetlas you know they are going to nitpick stuff to death and quit. The new player coming in who dont know the backgrounds and what not arent going to play that long becuase they have no clue what the hell its suppose to be about...In the end you are going to be getting the whining and flaming (sound familiar yet?). I would think that you would make the begginning of the game more into a background style "this si the character you made and this is how it fits into the world you are now entering.... Lets go back to a galaxy far far away and we will help you to understand..." And by lvl 10 or so you get kicked out into the real world so to speak (which the NGE tried to do but it did not work out quite right).
/rant off... Sorry.. jstu always wondered why try to get people to understand something they obviously never wanted to in the first place.
Xcathdra
Having access to a billion $ IP - Billions of dollars..
Having access to a massive fan base of said IP - Even more Billons...
Singly handedly alienating them due to stupidity - Priceless.
That may be your first post, but I really grok the mojo you're throwing out.
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
Rifleman wielding a rifle has 130 ranged defense. Pistoleer wielding a pistol has 135 ranged defense. Carbineer wieleding a carbine has 115 ranged defense. Due to a bug inherent in CU and possibly existing before, wielding a ranged weapon means using your ranged defense value against all attacks rather than just from ranged attacks. So a rifleman's 130 equals minimal defense (1), while a pistoleer's 135 is moderate (3) (pretty important 5 points) and the poor carbineer is 15 points below rifleman, he must have really minimal defense (1). The rifleman has melee defense of 65, the pistoleer 130 and the carbineer 100 when wielding his weapon speciality, so maybe if the game mechanic worked as written, their defense ratings might have been valid. Carbineers could outdamage rifleman in most situations because sniper shot had a very limited window of usefulness.
I didn't mind that they made all the armor skins viable, though I never understood why they linked them to professions or why they made the high end armor require so many specific resources (Why exactly did Wookie armor need Endorian wood? Was there armadas of Wookie lumberjacks travelling to Endor that we never saw in the movies?). I never liked how armor encumberance worked pre-cu but the new system had such minimal effect that people still only bought the best armor, you could master a profession so quickly it didn't matter to suffer with the penalty. I never liked how necessary uber-buffs were pre-cu, but they devs gutted doctor and especially entertainer in the cu.
The fact that most profession skills were general mods, that is general ranged accuracy, general ranged speed, ranged defense, etc. stacking 2 similar combat professions was the only way to go. One ranged/one melee no longer provided versatility because you would be weak at both (plus minimum range on weapons and position modifiers were dropped (remember when prone and kneeling did something). Choosing one combat and one non-combat profession was even worse because now we had a level-based system where level was more important than a character's skills.
And my favorite the Ranger, otherwise known as lets ignore the profession altogether and hope the players don't notice. All other profession require 43 skill points (58 for hybrid) but Ranger requires 77 and has less combat modifiers than doctor.
There were problems with Pre-CU SWG, players asked for a fix, they got the CU. There were problems with CU SWG, players asked for a fix, they got the NGE. There are problems with NGE SWG, players are asking for a fix, they will get... (Not sure what its acronym will be, but my I have no doubt that it will not be a fix.)
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE