Development Cycle Archive

Like some of the other statements, most proffessions master boxes is a joke. Take commando and smuggler for instance, no reason to master either one in terms of making a great combat character. In Commando, all you need is flamethrower 4 and your all set. In smuggler, last ditch then combine it with pistoleer. Proffessions like TK and RIfleman have great master boxes which is why alot of people master them or dont do them whatsoever. Of course TK is so **edit** good with all its bonus's, why does it not require more skill points to attain? Not asking for a nerf, just odd that it takes master marx and master scout to get bh but u can get to TK just through the unarmed tree saving alot of skill points to spend else where and become even more uber. Lol and commando takes master marx and unarmed but dont get really anything besides a flamethrower. So to sum it up, I think more emphasis on master bonuses and take away and lessen special attacks for dabblers. Also, make hybrid proffessions what they were supposed to be-the best of the best. Even if you have to add more hybrid proffessions- make them elite!

In my opinion this game is lacking one thing that could solve all problems (well most), LOGIC. For my exaple i will use thedreaded Rifleman/TKM. With special attacks your choices are determained by what you have equiped why then should the defences be any different. If you have a large heavy obect in your hands you are not going to move the same as ifyou have nothing in your hands. This would stop this and othe similar templets from being uber yet still be quite leathelfiring at you from long range and then when you close in unequiping the rifle and beating your head in with his fists. just have to make the macros to make the switch quick.the only drawback to this is that the uber tempate players would cry foul play because the woulk have to start useing stratagy instead of playing superman.its a simpe idea and simle ideas work thats the key to making this good game great, and add depth and stratagy for sloing and group.

The only thing I would like to see changed in regards to template mixing and matching:

Give all the best goodies in any profession once the MASTER box has been checked off. Everything else should pale in comparison.

No one line in any profession should dominate all the other lines. They should all be leading up to the master box.

Nah, the problem isnt that the defensive bonuses are too high its that they stack. Ever tried using a character with only one combat profession? Once ya have you will find that the individual class bonuses are fine, its when they are stacked together they become the problem. And anyone that doesnt think templating is a form of exploiting ask yourselves why you do it. Its for the advantage it gives you NOT over another templater but over a player using the system as it was intended. Play a character that excites you, thats the purpose of a game like this with character developement. How many of you templaters out there when you were eying the box in the store said "I want to play a character with +210 dodge"? Nobody did. How many had an idea what class(s) excited them? Almost everyone. The definition of an exploit is using a particular system or oversight within a system to give yourself an unfair advantage over another or others who are using the system the way it was intended. I have yet to see a single endorsement for stackable bonuses come from anyone who wasnt running an uber template. PLEASE NERF THE STACKABLE DEFENSIVE BONUSES, its the single biggest improvement you can make to PvP combat within the game. Just my 2 cents

I'd like to see BH-Pistoleer. The bad thing is, if you decide to master BH you really don't have many skill points left to experiment with other skill sets.

Also, when are we gonna see the ability to wield dual weapons. (i.e. two pistols/ Jango style)

SAVE THE BEST SPECIALS OR ABILITIESFOR THE MASTER BOX!
Let dabblers dabble all they want, but reward masters with true MASTERY!

By the way, we've never seen if the current scheme really works because every profession has specials that are broken. We've never seen this game work as intended.

Though I am Master TKA I honestly think the whole meditation tree is a little out of whack in general. The Meditation tree includes major abilities of three "healing"professions (CM, Doctors, and Entertainers). Healing poison, disease, bleeding andwoundsof Health, Action and Mind is a hugeadvantage over other combat professions. Lack of DoT, more weapons (TKA isnt Unarmed see VK) and armor piercing dont make that in anyway up. Meditation grants you even a very easy buffing (Power boost) possibility with hardly any costs(time about 60 s and few skill points), and a possibility to get out of incap earlier, thus having a greater chance defying death (Force of Will) The Skill system is based on dabbling possibilities, too

By moving the abilities into the Master Box, would only reduce the freedom of choice of the players, so I wouldn’t go that way.
I would probably just take the whole Meditation Tree out of TKA, and make a new profession.
Some kind of Spiritual Profession which each class can dabble in or Master (Spiritual Master), Tkas could get a bonus modifier on meditation as master though.

1.Give the profession different kinds of meditation Styles

2.Abilities/skills beside the Force of Will, Powerboost, selfhealing, etc:

Area of Effect passive and active skills throughmeditation as a bonus of being in a group:

3. Channel a specific amount Health/Action or Mind attributes from others/self onto a specific person for a short moment of time.

4. Entertainer group, possibility of making them go into some kind of trance mode-> when doing flourishes in trance mode you have less action cost. Master Dancer/Musician Buffs would be more effective.

5. Combat group: higher Resist against Deseases.

6. CH and Bio engineer groups:

The chance that a creature would attack the BioEngineere or CH if sampling or taming fails would be less if the person would have a spiritualist in the group or dabble in the Spiritualist Profession.

7. Possible influence on Foodcrafting process= results in less consumption of health, action or Mind after eating when doing specials.

8. Ability while incapped:
Force of Will, and at Master level possibility to walk as a “ghost” (only non-combat related, but ability to command pets/droids, ability to craft, equip/unequip items

9. If more then i.e. two Spiritual Master are grouped let them have the possibility to change the weather (NOT the Day/night cycle though)

Just an idea, and I know it would probably take ages to develop, but there might be a slight possibility to push this in during the whole combat revamp.

Sorry, my post got somehow clogged up, and hurts somehow the eyes, dunno what happened their and I cant edit it.

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spoiledbrat wrote:
Though I am Master TKA I honestly think the whole meditation tree is a little out of whack in general.

The Meditation tree includes major abilities of three "healing"professions (CM, Doctors, and Entertainers). Healing poison, disease, bleeding andwoundsof Health, Action and Mind is a hugeadvantage over other combat professions.

Lack of DoT, more weapons (TKA isnt Unarmed see VK) and armor piercing dont make that in anyway up. Meditation grants you even a very easy buffing (Power boost) possibility with hardly any costs(time about 60 s and few skill points), and a possibility to get out of incap earlier, thus having a greater chance defying death (Force of Will).

The Skill system is based on dabbling possibilities.

Moving the abilities into the Master Box, would only reduce the freedom of choice of the players, so I wouldn’t go that way.

I would probably just take the whole Meditation Tree out of TKA, and make a new profession.

Some kind of Spiritual Profession (i.e. Spiritualist) which each class can dabble in or Master (Spiritual Master),

Tkas could get a bonus modifier on meditation as master though.

1.Give the profession different kinds of meditation styles

2.Abilities/skills beside the Force of Will, Powerboost, selfhealing, etc:Area of Effect passive and active skills throughmeditation as a bonus of being in a group:

3. Channel a specific amount Health/Action or Mind attributes from others/self onto a specific person for a short moment of time.

4. Entertainer group, possibility of making them go into some kind of trance mode-> when doing flourishes in trance mode you have less action cost. Master Dancer/Musician Buffs would be more effective.

5. Combat group: higher Resist against Deseases.

6. CH and Bio engineer groups:The chance that a creature would attack the BioEngineere or CH if sampling or taming fails would be less if the person would have a spiritualist in the group or dabble in the Spiritualist Profession.

7. Possible influence on Foodcrafting process= results in less consumption of health, action or Mind after eating when doing specials.

8. Ability while incapped:Force of Will, and at Master level possibility to walk as a “ghost” (only non-combat related, but ability to command pets/droids, ability to craft, equip/unequip items.

9. If more then i.e. two Spiritual Master are grouped let them have the possibility to change the weather (NOT the Day/night cycle though).

Just an idea, and I know it would probably take ages to develop, but there might be a slight possibility to push this in during the whole combat revamp.

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I find Bh pistol 4 and pistoleer needing more KD defence LOL thats just me though.....maybe i should get a skill tape hmmmm.....anyway this is a favorite combo (for me anyway)

1. LET SMUGGLERS, SMUGGLE!!!
   
   
   
   • How to do this:
     
     
     
     • This will not be popular, but Smugglers should not be in the GCW, they would need to be removed (samefor Bounty Hunters) - When Han Solo joined the Rebels, he stopped beinga smuggler!
       
     • Every minor faction (Hutt, Swoops, Demon, etc) and the GCW Factions would issue standard missions that require the transportation of goods (resourses, weapons, armor, suppiles) from one city to another.
       
     • To do this, there would be Specific Smuggler Terminals within the factions base (Jabba's palace would have one and the smuggler would have to run the needed missions to get into the inner circle). Once there, they can get a missions that will require them to goto a city and pick up the cargo.
       
     • After they get the Cargo, they have to goto a series of "waypoints" that would require at least 3 Planet jumps and 3 city jumps.
       
     • During this time, the Smuggler will be TEFed to "Guardsmen" and "Enforcers" (more to come on them).
       
     • To complete the missions, and get paid, the Smuggler has to succesfully navigate through the cities and planets without getting caught.
       
       
       
       • If they do not get caught, they get paid thier fee for the mission.
         
       • If they get caught (by Gaurdsmen or Enforcers) they either fight thier way out or lose thier cargo
         
         
         
         • To many lost cargo's will result in a Bounty
           
         • If the Smuggler decides to SELL his cargo, he'll lose ALL future missions with that faction and will get routine Bounties placed on him
       
       
     • Smugglers will see Guardsmen and Inforcers on their Radar as BLACK dots within 50m (see below to know what a Guardsmen and Enforcers are)
       
       
       
       • If the City you are in is to heavly patroled, you may want to try and other starport first and come back when the activity is not as alerted to your activity.
   
   
2. Create NEW FACTION PROFESSIONS
   
   
   
   • Guardmen
     
     
     
     • Requires:
       
       
       
       • Master Squad Leader& Master Pistoleer / Master Carbineer / Master Riflemen
         
       • Faction Rank of Sergaentor higher
       
       
     • Profession Purpose:
       
       
       
       • This profession's purpose is to patrol a city making sure there are no illegal activity going on. Guardsmen are assigned a city that they are responsible to patroling and they gain faction points for thier service and if they get a bonus with they uncover illegal activity.
         
       • Guardsmen, while partoling thier assigned city, will have TEF on any Smuggler, that has cargo, when they get within 30m. It is important that Gaurdsmen do not just focus their efforts on the starport, as a Smugglers Pick-Up and Drop-Off points can be anywhere within the city (player citys are not included in this).
         
       • Guardsmen can also "Hand Select" people in the city and stop them from moving for 20 secs, during which time an "Inforcer" can determine if that person is a Covert Member
     
     
   • Enforcer
     
     
     
     • Reguires:
       
       
       
       • Master Ranger & Master TKA / Master Fencer / Master Pikemen / Master Swordsmen
         
       • Faction Rank of Sergaent or higher
       
       
     • Profession Purpose:
       
       
       
       • This profession's purpose is to work with the Guardsmen and provide support when combat is needed. This comes when the Gaurdsmen finds a Smuggler or"Hand Selects"Covert Faction member(s). The main purpose of an Inforcer is to use thier "Ranger" skills to locate and retrieve lost cargo. Any time a smuggler loses his cargo, it will be an Inforcers job to locate it. They will get a missions (faction mission terminal) for Cargo Retrieval. Based on a series of clues and information, they must trace the last know path of the smuggler and search for the cargo using thier Ranger Radar.
         
       • They receive extra faction points for cargo retreived and Covert Members detected. Bonus for killing the covert member.

I know this is a prayer on a kite string, but I really want to make this post anyway.

SWG, in my opinion is very lacking in both actual combat roles, besides, basically, tank-mage and healer, to use the classic terminologies.

The problem galaxies has, though, compared to say, Everquest, is there are some key roles missing. You might paint the SL as a bard, providing group advantages, but they are so weak as to not be worth it. There is nothing akin to the enchanter and crowd control.

Moreover, everyone knows the KD/dizzy death combo.

While allowing players to explore multiple combat roles is great, the problem is they aren't mutually exclusive in implementation. That is, the tank-mage (unless you're a wookiee, doomed to be the glass jaw of your group because of an il compensated for lack of armor).

Now, I am going to leave melee out of this for a minute, but I would like to propose some things to further differentiate the roles of different weapons classes and talk about some advantages to minor changes to skills. My goals for this include more realism (I will go ahead and put the hot button word in there early), better role differentiation, and more variation in ability between professions.

First, I want to talk about weapons and roles. The first thing that stands out in my mind are pistols. They are almost a catch-all professions right now, for basic damage dealing. The problem is, the role is uninteresting. Fan Shot and Multi Target are great, and I think could be used as a basis for differentiting pistols. However, my first point goes to this:

1. Pistols are WAY WAY to accurate at range, and deal much too little damage in close.

Playing a glass jawed wookiee, I frequently find myself standing with the riflemen in the back line of combat, but there is very little appreciable different in my engagement ability. Pistols should be about engaging targets quickly up close.

2. Provide mutliple target engagement earlier in the pistol class and increase the engagement field of fire, or number of targets as skill increases.

This is the way I would see this working: at novice pistoleer you get a FoF akin to what Fan Shot has now, that will engage 2 targets simultaneously. Through the pistoleer profession you can add various iterations of this skill that will let you increase the FoF to 180 degrees and, say, 8 targets. Each additional target inside the FoF skill you select, however, decreases the to-hit target on each one. This gives you a couple of interesting dynamics:

• For the "tank" it allows a player to use his 180 degree FoF to engage and "taunt" multiple targets with direct damage.
  
• It cuts back on the "only use your best skill" combat queueing, where you might want to use an "older" skill with a more narror FoF so you can increase to-hit and dmg across the targets you want to engage.
  

Next is rifles and carbines. I'm going to put these together, because I see 2 skill roles that are decidedly missing here, and I think would be a great addition to the game.

Everyone knows carbineer sucks. The weapons suck. The skills aren't much better. The thing is, a carbineer should be your basic ranged combat class, not pistoleer or rifleman. The weapons need drastic improvement. I also think there is a key option on weapon schematics that is missing -- full and semiautomatic. Right now, basically every weapon is full auto, because of the "fiction" of the full auto skills. Frankly if all you want is an AE and high dmg, rewrite the fiction. Its just silly. However, there is a two-skill combo I would like to talk about:

• Cover fire. This is a sustained AE attack for carbineers that would basically decrease the to-hit chances for all targets it engages. It would last only as long as the action is in the queue and would have to be "re-called" to continue on the next action. It would only be avialable on full auto capable weapons.
  
• Supression fire. This is getting rid of the "drop stance" fiction, which is a little jilted at best. Supression fire is a full auto rifle action that decreases signifigantly the attack speed of targets it engages.
  
• Pinning fire. This would basically cross over between the rifle and carbineer skills and provide an AE ability to slow movement of targets in the FoF. While this should not be as effective as the traps that scouts and rangers get, they are mutli target, where as the scout ranger AE traps are "special effects" (flashbangs or teargas, in effect).
  

These are all "crowd control" abilities, but the truely interesting dynamic that comes up is basically the "pinned down" scenario, where a pair, or multiple riflemen and carbineers sustain these attacks greatly reducting their targets abilities to deal damange. The big difference with this model, however, is you aren't granting a KD/dizzy combo to anyone. They are sustained attacks from two parties, eliminating a PvP 1 on 1 ownage scenario that everyone is very familiar with.

Moreover, it encourages a little more "unbunching" of players. FoF awareness means people will want to spread out more, and that is a good thing.

Of course, both of these groups still need good direct damage abilities, but the rifleman should be more in the "sniper" motif. It should be a first strike attack that deals big damage but is not used repeatedly during the engagment, where the rifleman takes on the fire-support role that a heavy MG would in traditional raged combat games, perhaps even absorbing a greater area, lesser damager or to-hit version of the current carbineer "full auto area". Rifles, much like pistols, however, need a much clearer line in their effectiveness ranges. Inside 30m they need to have a signifigant falloff.

Meanwhile, the carbineer just needs much better direct damage abilities from basic fire actions. Burst shot is a great model and fiction for this, but the effectiveness of the weapons is a big issue right now. Carbineer also needs a very smooth accuracy and power curve across ranges. They should be the balanced attack class that they aren't right now, and should represent.

The commando, as it is, is pretty friggin cool. DoTs, good direct damage, etc. Eveyone knows, however, that they are hurting in PvP. Part of the reason, however, is the lack of armor (in the military sense) that is relevant in PvP. ATSTs are the exception, not the rule and there is no equivilent Rebel unit. Facilities attacks are also very much not the rule. However, if we eliminate the KD/dizzys of the world, they become a lot more self sustaing. For PvE however, they pretty much rule the roost, and I don't really have a problem with that. My only suggestion would be to increase decay rates on flamethrowers, not so they become consumables, but so they at least aren't like a standard weapon. That power needs to come at a higher cost to the user. The commando remains, the nuker.


Squad Leader. Sigh... What can you say? They just don't matter. I still think giving them combat droid command abilities would be a big step forward. The relevance of thier skills, however, is just sad. The "ability" granted as Novice SL is just a joke at best. In light of the more 1-2 punch for crowd control mentioned earlier, give SL a "break for it" skill that mittigates these numbers, perhaps combining with the "burst run" speed of "Retreat", to break up a pinned down grouping. Volley fire and target designation needs to be much better. The assist mechanic in SWG, through no real fault of its own, but that of the "two target" system is slightly flawed. Give a SL the ability to force an assist -- look at target a party memeber, and force a change of their combat AND look at targets to the SL's current combat target, meaning the player will start queueing actions against that target. A similar ability to affect the whole group would be good too, beyond just the volley mechanic. I would also do away with "Rally" as a concept, and simply have it be an ambient thing that is always there when the SL is group leader whose effect increase with SL skills. SL is always going to be a support role, however, and I just don't see the need to worry about 1 on 1 PvP ballance with it too much, certainly not relative to smuggler, of course combining with any of the range combat professions, or even medic makes great sense. A SL, Medic combination, aside form the OVERLY heavy skills point cost (How about eliminating the scouting requirements?) would give you an interesting character that is entirely focuses on group-management and target-management.


The big push here, however, is to (a) open up more diversity in the weapon selection and (b) open up more diversity in the ranged combat roles. Until combat vehicles and some kind of interesting battlefield mechanic make an appearance, we are stuck with a tank-nuke-heal game with players, but there doesn't seem to be much tactics beyond one or two people tank, the healer heals the tanks and EVERYONE nukes. Opening up non-nuke support skills that are different and complementary to the basic ranged classes does this. Combat needs to be much less about stand around shooting and healing the tank in the (select proper armor for target, usually ubese).

No, I know fully half of the combat professions in the game have a melee element to them and I haven't touched on that at all. Right now, the TKA is pretty much an owner, but he always has the range issue. Even with the KD/dizzy, which is overpowering in 1 on 1 engagements PvWhatever, he has a great ranged weakness. Following that model is fine, but the big failing of SWG, IMHO, is that so many of the targets are animals and not NPCs. Nobody WANTS to kill NPCs when you go out on a hunt group because (a) faction loss can affect mobility on certain worlds, (b) ranged engagement is harder to plan for -- rightly so -- than killing animals, and (c) the payout is generally better in harvested resources, loots drops (RIS components, weapon upgrades, whatever). Execuse me while I lament the loss of domesticated farming from the design doc.

In short, for all of this, cherry picking is great, and some of the abilities you get from the "out of base" combat classes are pretty interesting. The Ranger, specifically I think is fascinating, but under utilized in large part I imagine because of the skill point investment required to carry it. The big thing about cherry picking, though, is it should be more about carrying multiple roles without giving too many stacked ubers. Some things are just naturally hard -- playing a melee medic, for instance, but thats OK. The big thing is these roles need to be more complimentary in the group setting, and perhaps less so at the individual level, while an individual is given the flexibility to shift roles within a group.

The last thing I really wanted to talk about, and this is just in here because it is near to my heart, is the weapon tieing for Smuggler. Its just annoying that my wookiee smuggler I want to use a bowcaster with gets no advantages from his two best combat skills. Providing these as multi-weapon abilities, even if you maintain the pistol XP requirement would really be great.