Commando Archive

• Combat pacing still allows for basic chatting and command communication.


• The average even PvP fight should last 1-3 minutes.


• Actions can have specific counter, combo and recovery actions


• Powerful or unique actions cannot be repeatedly "spammed"


• Actions can only be used a limited amount of times during a specific short period


• Different professions have different ideal ranges (Commandos will reportedly have a variety of ranges available)


• Terrain has a meaningful impact on combat


• Movement and position have a meaningful impact on combat


• Gear choice has impact on speed of motion and actions (take into account that our weapons are "heavy")


• Profession abilities have minimal overlap to ensure distinct combat roles


• Profession abilities can be combined to create more unique or specialized combat roles


• HAM is now divided into Health, which is where all wounds occur, and two ability point "pools" (Action and Mind) from which all game actions draw


• Health grows over time with character growth (it is my understanding that a Master will have more HP then say a Novice)


• You must deplete the Health stat through damage + wounds to incapacitate a character or NPC


• Deathblow is no longer instantaneous




• Deathblow will have a setup time in which it can be interrupted and the player is vulnerable


• Deathblow will only be able to be done while in melee range. All professions will have the innate ability to perform a deathblow (some may be better at it than others) but none will be able to deal a deathblow from a distance (in otherwords, even if some of our specials require that they be used in Melee range, our opponent will still have to come to us to DB...can be used to draw folks in)

• Most profession abilities are no longer weapon specific. Now, different special abilities can be used with different weapons. (Though some abilities are still limited to specific weapons or weapon groups.) (Sound familiar? CROSS WEAPON SPECIALS)


• DoTs: While DoTs, or Damage-Over-Time attacks, will work much the way they did before, weapons with DoTs have been removed. (As Starnick mentioned earlier, we have been told that at the very least, we will keep our DoT, but that it will operate differently...stay tuned for more info)

• Actions will now have Wind-Ups and Cool-Downs.

• Armor Types:




• None - Provides no additional damage mitigation


• Reconnaissance 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 an 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 certifications will control what types of armor players can wear by profession. (it is my understanding that, once you are cert'd, you can wear that armor no matter what weapon or special you are using...but remember, different weapons and specials will cause different effects to the player as referenced above. Some abilties will perform better with less or no armor equiped for example)


• Armor Slicing




• We want to keep slicing a fun and effective advantage in the game. We will institute a method by which all armor can be sliced but lower end armors can get a higher slice percentage than higher end armors, In addition, remember that as a general rule of thumb, any time a protection is increased in any way, the corresponding hindrances will also rise by an equal amount. Slicing will remain an "illegal" activity.

• Attack speeds and movement will vary from one type of NPC to another. (it is my understanding that, for example, a Rifleman NPC will use Rifleman abilties and weapons and prefer ranged combat, where as a Pikeman NPC will use pikeman abilities and try to stay in Melee range).


• Some NPC's will prefer ranged over melee combat. (see above)


• Groups of players will be able to better focus the aggression of NPC's.




• NPC's and Creatures will now keep track of aggression towards each player.


• Taunting, de-buffing and healing will raise the level of aggression.


• Some NPC's will assist each other.

• Commando Pre-Regs = Brawler, Unarmed Specialization Tree (4 boxes), Marksman Ranged Support Tree (4 boxes)

Commando

Primary Role: Heavy Weapon Specialist

Secondary Role: Medium Range Damage Specialist

Offense: Very Strong (5)

Defense: Moderate (3) (I would say we are currently a "1" in defense if you want a reference point for how our Defenses will increase via the CU)

Crowd Control: Minimal (1)

The Commando is the specialist of Heavy Weapons. (it's our specialization in Heavy Weapons and how our Heavy Weapons will differ from other profession's weaponry that will really make us unique). 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. (we will basically "super charge" any profession we dabble and will also be seen as a way for other professions to "super charge themselves...Commando will be basically the "elite" next level to any other combat profession, mainly ranged though). Whatever the damage dealing requirement is for a situation, the Commando has the answer.

Profession Mixing Tip: Commandos are intended to be the weapon specialists and are the final heavy damage dealing profession along with Rifleman and Swordsman. (it is our heavy damage levels combined with our unique weaponry that will differentiate us from Rifleman and Swordsman). Commandos focus on their potent damage dealing capability rather than having a varied utility or strong defensive ability. Adding additional ranged profession skills to a Commando creates a very potent damage specialist because instead of having a few special abilities for a specific set of weapons, they can now stack their profession with other professions to gain a wide variety of special abilities. Alternatively Commandos may decide to increase their tactical flexibility by learning skills from other professions.

Message Edited by garvin on 03-30-2005 08:41 AM

Message Edited by garvin on 03-30-2005 08:47 AM

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garvin wrote:

Defense: Moderate (3) (I would say we are currently a "1" in defense if you want a reference point for how our Defenses will increase via the CU)

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I would agree here.

I think (just a guess here) that you can look at defenses kinda like this:

Rating Melee/Ranged Def State Def

1 0/0-25/25 0-15
2 30/30-50/50 20-25
3 60/60-75/75 30-35
4 80/80-100/100 40-45
5 105/105-125/125 50+

However, for any defensive system to work worth a damn, the Devs will have to fix accuracy so that it is balanced with said defensive system. If every profession has wildly different accuracy mods (as they do now) then a defensive rating will really be irrelevant.

Message Edited by Jaim_Darkstryder on 03-30-2005 11:54 AM

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JohboBocal wrote:

Oh, but I don't understand the timeline for this testing. We are going to spend who knows how long on novice skills, then one profession, then all. Hmmmm, then we may only have ONE week or less to test templates???

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even if this is true or not let me explain something

never question the SoE logic, because while im sure they have reasons... we dont know them and we cant tell

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JohboBocal wrote:

Oh, but I don't understand the timeline for this testing. We are going to spend who knows how long on novice skills, then one profession, then all. Hmmmm, then we may only have ONE week or less to test templates???

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All I know is that we will be doing some "focused" testing...how focused is the question...

Personally, I'm worried that testing on TC will hinder the idea of doing "focused" testing because of Lag issues and because of what we've seen with open testing before (people not following instructions, fighting PvP around the Frogs or testing areas, etc)...I'm also worried about trolls and whiners who will scream "NERF" at every thing they can't strategically comprehend...Commandos will likely be a serious target for NERF Herders because of our high damage levels (they won't look at the other strategic elements of Commando that round us out) so we'll have to be on our toes to defend ourselves (I've heard more then one CU dev/programmer say they might be afriad that Commandos could be a bit over-powered via the CU if anything...so I take that as a good sign...lol).

The armor certification issue and the plan that Imperial Assault/Recon armor helmets can only we worn by Humans and Zabraks gives me a lot of concern. As a Trandoshan Imperial Commando, I'm not going to be able to protect my scaly head with the armor certification that I earn from being a commando.

This is a TREMENDOUSLY impacting issue if SOE does not allow a respec of the SPECIES as well as the skills. I would be limited to either using less effective armor, risking getting my head blown off, having to surrender commando and go a different route, or having to start over with a new toon and grinding massively.

It's a change of the rules after the start of the game. Does SOE have any plans to address this, because we have a number of non-human non-zabrak commandos that will be denied use of some of our certified armor resulting from this plan.

Thanks

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Latenighter wrote:
The armor certification issue and the plan that Imperial Assault/Recon armor helmets can only we worn by Humans and Zabraks gives me a lot of concern. As a Trandoshan Imperial Commando, I'm not going to be able to protect my scaly head with the armor certification that I earn from being a commando.

This is a TREMENDOUSLY impacting issue if SOE does not allow a respec of the SPECIES as well as the skills. I would be limited to either using less effective armor, risking getting my head blown off, having to surrender commando and go a different route, or having to start over with a new toon and grinding massively.

It's a change of the rules after the start of the game. Does SOE have any plans to address this, because we have a number of non-human non-zabrak commandos that will be denied use of some of our certified armor resulting from this plan.

Thanks

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garvin wrote:

All I know is that we will be doing some "focused" testing...how focused is the question...

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Yeah, that's my worry. If the focus test for the "novice" level is just one day, then fine. If it lasts 2 weeks, then we are dead.

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garvin wrote:

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JohboBocal wrote:

Oh, but I don't understand the timeline for this testing. We are going to spend who knows how long on novice skills, then one profession, then all. Hmmmm, then we may only have ONE week or less to test templates???

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All I know is that we will be doing some "focused" testing...how focused is the question...

Personally, I'm worried that testing on TC will hinder the idea of doing "focused" testing because of Lag issues and because of what we've seen with open testing before (people not following instructions, fighting PvP around the Frogs or testing areas, etc)...I'm also worried about trolls and whiners who will scream "NERF" at every thing they can't strategically comprehend...Commandos will likely be a serious target for NERF Herders because of our high damage levels (they won't look at the other strategic elements of Commando that round us out) so we'll have to be on our toes to defend ourselves (I've heard more then one CU dev/programmer say they might be afriad that Commandos could be a bit over-powered via the CU if anything...so I take that as a good sign...lol).

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Novock wrote:

Might that mean you guys will be testing the CU stuff on a separet server that will be testing Kash at the same time?

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