Commando Archive

• New HAM System




• Separate special action costs from damage – no more dying from using your special actions!
  This also translates into NO MORE SPAMMING as the action pools will be limited...


• 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.
  Hmmm...maybe strengths vs. weaknesses...I seem to recall us discussing an idea like that...


• “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!
  Counters will come with a cost...so they will be very strategic on when and where you use them...but the good news is no more of "once on our backs we are dead"...and combine that with the "end of spamming" and things are looking up for us.


• State (DoT, Diseased, etc.) effects - new state effects and dots balanced with moves and counter moves.
  As far as I've heard, there will not be any counter to our DoT created that doesn't already exist in the game (fire blankets and water).


• 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.

• Improve Professions




• Professions now have unique roles in a group and make all roles useful.
  I seem to recall seeing this type of idea discussed somewhere as well...Finally groups will have use of us Commandos...


• 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.
  The way Death/Incapp is changing is a fairly huge change and will effect us all...this is one thing to keep an eye out for regarding future information...It will definitely effect some of our currently preceived weaknesses.


• 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".
  This is one of the most exciting parts of the CU...Commandos will be well set on our Armor type...But it's also huge for Armorsmiths and overall gameplay as we'll no longer see everyone running around in just composite...Professions will focus on using the type of armor that plays best on their strengths while helping out with their weaknesses...Dabbing will further increase the armor choices.


• Armor types are affected differently by different weapons. – there should no longer be a “best” weapon.
  There will be added strategy in knowing when to wear armor and when to have the ability not to need armor...that's all I'm saying there...


• 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.
  I know that the above 3 have been concerns that have been voiced by many...It's nice to know that the Devs are recognizing these issues.

• 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!
  I seem to recall someone mentioning that they envisioned a day when we'd see a GCW battlefield where volumes of stromtroopers are clashing with rebels...do you think he could have been referring to something coming from these changes?


• Ranged Combat




• Make ranged combat more interesting and important - we are working to extend combat range.
  Commandos WILL be impacted here...can't say much more (NDA)...


• Prevent ability to make one’s self immune to range damage - No more unbeatable stacker templates.
  Rock, Paper, Sissors maybe...


• New ranged weapons – more blasters, more blasters!
  New is good...and Commandos ARE included...

Message Edited by garvin on 01-18-2005 02:37 PM

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Novock wrote:

This is very nice and very well made. I am definetly glad they finally got this out but still confused why something like this couldn't have been made sometime ago. Anyways very nice and we'll wait and see how the follow up is handled.

I'm curious to what the FF will be this week though since Cal said "It will be cool"

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aeuralis wrote:

How come after reading TH's most recent post, I don't feel like I learned anything new?

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Agreed 100 percent.

Perhaps I had too much hope in it.

But, it read as the same as 90 percent of the rest of Thunderhearts posts....Vague. Inconclusive.

At this point, I cant decide whats worse:

A) Saying nothing, therefore leaving nothing to speculation

B) Saying something without really saying anything, and opening up the masses to wild and rampant ideas and speculation, leaving the extreme possibility of disappointment at the end.

The absolute BEST thing to do is publish the docs, with updated information weekly/biweekly. Put one forum for it, with each profession listed and the anticipated changes....Format it like so:

Combat Upgrade Forums:

> Main Documents

>> Professions

(insert profession list here)

>>> HAM Revamp

>>>> Armor changes

etc, etc etc

.Give correspondents (who spend the most time in their respective profession forums) the ability to lock (and/or delete) posts that appear with anything about the CU. Make it firm that each player is given 3 strikes and they are out (i.e. - 3 locked posts in the wrong forums, and ban for 1 week).

Update this area as needed. Simple. Effective. At this point, there really is no need in being so secretive.

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Raty wrote:

cant they make commando overly uber for like a week... i got a lot of jedi that i owe a few hundread deaths to.

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