Development Cycle Archive
Thread: In-Concept Open Discussion (Week Ending 3-1-04)
Part 1 General
1a Character Basics
Everything should recieve an increase to their HAM 10X. Just the basics of Health, Action and Mind. All creatures and players characters should recieve this. If kreetles were advanced from having 46 ham to haveing 460 ham it would take more skill than just auto attacking. The increase player HAM in health Action and Mind would balance for the increase in creature HAM. This would lengthen battles and give them a more epic feeling. This would also make status effects and time based maneuvers more effective. This would add a use for stims above the B and C's that everyone uses now. There is no reason to use a Stim D as no player character has a HAM over 1500 that these could hit for. An increased HAM would make higher level doctor skills a lot more viable in the feild.
1b. Advancement
Within the game there is not a class that cannot be mastered within a week. This is excluding Jedi. Most of the advanced classes can be mastered with a couple of days. All experience boxes should be increased 10X. Rather than 1000 xp to get your first pistol box it should be 10000 per box. This would slow the rate of advancement and prolong people playing the game. If the xp requirements were incresed it would be more rewarding to acheive that next skill. The 10X increase to xp requirements should be universal to all classes. If this was done they could re-enable factories giving xp and usage xp for items used to ease the increased grind in the crafting professions. For combat professions the group XP bonus of old could be re-instated to help counter the increased XP. Full xp per member for the creature kill could be awarded. This would be another benefit to grouping. Currently it is more effective to group with a faction pet or regular pet/droid and solo to gain xp as no one is cutting into your xp per kill.
1c. Loot and Rare Items
All players within a group should recieve their chance at looting a mob their group has won rights to loot. Each player should be allowed a roll at a loot. If a group of 3 kills a krayt dragon each person should have their chance to loot. One person may loot scales, the next may loot a set of tissue and the third may loot a pearl. This would encourage grouping and reward all members of a group with a reward. This would reduce ninja looting and kill stealing as everyone would have a chance to loot an item. This would increase the amount of rare loot items with the game yet with the increased experience requirements the decay rates should remain the same. The increase in loot would balance against the increase in usage required of items.
1d. Housing
All housing storage should be based upon lot requirements of the structure. There should be an increase of 50 items per lot. A small 1 lot house should hold 50 items. A 2 lot house should hold 100 items and a 9 lot guildhall should house 450 items. As it stands currently its more cost effective for maintenance and storage to own a pair of medium houses rather than a large house.
1e. Friends List
One simple thing needs to be addressed here. That is to require permission to add someone to your friends list. Currently anyone can add you to their friends list without your permission. This is an extreme negative for crafters that may wish to log on briefly to attend to some of the smaller things and get swarmed with tells. Either fix requiring permission to be added to the friends list or enable /anon to set us to an offline status to all people with us on their friends list. I'm sure a lot of people are dying for some form of privacy.
1f. World
Each planet should have 1 no wait spaceport. Perhaps Coronet and Bestine could be added as no wait shuttles. This would allow for instant travel between the primary planets. Travel to outposts should still require their waiting periods. But allowing quick travel to each of the big 3 planets would solve a lot of the downtime in travelling.
Weather effects should effect combat as well. When it is raining Firedots shouldn't stick as well as they do, when there is a sandstorm there should be a global reduction in accuracy.
There should be a difference in creatures according to the night and day. Harder creatures should come out at night. During the day the easier less aggressive creatures should be out feeding and roaming the planes, but during the night more aggressive creatures should appear. Thus making you want to set camp to wait out the night time.
Part 2 Combat
2a. AI
The creatures within this game need to be more intelligent. Currently they all have one mindset. If in Melee range go melee and attack, if in ranged either fire from a distance or charge. Creatures should also be able to maneuver around static objects. Perhaps an invisible feild that creatures bounce off of so they do not get stuck on things like harvestors.
2b. Line of Sight
This needs to make a comeback. It was implimented briefly on Test Center and it was wonderful. It allowed for a broad range of tactics to be developed. If the AI was fixed as mentioned above, we could develop new tactics to use in the lengthened battles with the overal HAM increases mentioned in section 1a.
2c. Classes and Professions
All classes need to be balanced against each other. For the primary forms of attacks there is 3 main lines. Long range, Mid range and Close range. They should all be balanced off of each other. Pistoleers should target health and be close range fast damage dealers with a max range of 48. They should not be able to fire further than that. Carbineers should be the middle of the road targetting the action pool and have a medium speed cap at around 3 seconds while they do a medium damage. Riflemen should have their range increased to 96 meters. They should do higher damage at a slower rate. Perhaps a 5 second delay cap and target the mind pool. Each would have their own role from their respective ranges. The same could apply for the Melee classes. Fencer high speed low damage, swords medium speed medium damage and then pikemen with high damage at a slower rate. TKA should be moved to require master brawler as a prerequisite. Leave it as a culmination of all the above classes as they are now.
For the hybrid classes they should be unique to themselves. Bounty Hunters should be masters of each of the different ranges. Perhaps making the llc work from rifle range in the above idea. This way they would be feasable in each of the scenarios provided. Commandos should be high damage dealers but not be very mobile as a counter.
Squad leaders should be able to join multiple groups so they could relay information from one group to the next. Thus making multi squad raids possible. Communication between squads could be provided from squad leaders then. This would be invaluable in large scale raids and battles for organization.
Doctors and Combat Medics should be enemies. Doctors should be able to counter the area poisons and diseases with an area cure. Of course within a 15m radius of the doctor. With the proposed HAM changes in the first section doctors would be more viable to provide large scale healing.
Rangers should be able to set up some kind of feild base that can be attacked and destroyed as a ground of staging. Similar to how houses used to be used as a raiding point. Yet these ranger staging grounds should be destroyable so it is not a place of immunity, but rather a regroup area.
Entertainers in the field should offer some form of a defensive bonus as a distract if they are playing near enemies attacking. They should also boost moral giving a bonus to the attackers.
Image designers should be able to offer disguise kits so that people could go under cover to discover base times and infultrate.
Part 3 Galactic Civil War
3a. Faction Perks
New schematic for wall units and outlook towers crafted by architects. These would allow for guilds to build their fortresses. It would be a method of securing an area. These wall peices should be destroyable. This would allow for tactical defence positions to be created for larger scale battles.
A New Factional display case should be added as a factional perk as well. (this will be explained after)
Ranks should be displayable. Colonels should also be able to set coverts to overt after a 30 second wait. This would help reduce the group tef situation. They should also be saluted so that opposition could spot the Colonels and attempt to take them out before more players declare from them.
Player corpses should be lootable. Credits in hand should be lootable giving reason to use the banks again. Players should also drop a dog tag when slain. This dog tag should just be a simple %tt was slain by %tt. This could be either displayed in the Display case in someone's house or turned in to a recruited for a small fp reward.
Part 4 Jedi and FSCS
4a. Unlocking Method
This system needs to revamped. It should definitely become more quest orientated. The quests should be dynamic spawns similar to the Hero of Tatooine quests but on a planetary scale rather than in a small location. The change to the unlocking method is the only manner of keeping Jedi rare due to that once you have unlocked you always have that character permadeath or not.
4b Jedi Faction
Jedi should have their own faction (4th?). They should be neither rebel or imperial nor neutral. They should be their own. A Jedi TEF should be against nuetrals, imperials and rebels. They should be part of the system just the same as everyone else if they decide to join the Alliance or the Empire.
4c Light Side vs Dark Side
This should be broken into a difference of skills. There is a great guide posted in the Jedi forums on how to do this. Dark Jedi should be more offensive than Light Jedi. There is also no Jedi order in this time frame. Thus a dark side jedi should be able to join the rebellion the same as a light sided jedi should be able to join the empire. Jedi should be freelancers free to choose who they aid in the eternal struggle. Thus allowing them to choose factional alignment.
4d Jedi Rarity
Jedi should be self sufficient. They should be able to attain the items they require without having to go spam for crystals or pearls in the major commerce centers. They should be forced into the backwoods areas with visiblity. They should also have a method of knowing what their current visibility level is at. There needs to be a lot more clarity on just how visibility works and is designed. With a change to the unlocking system there would be a lot less Iniates popping up. This would reduce the number of Jedi around. There should also be a better manner of disguising for Jedi so they are less visible when they do travel to town. Currently they are easily spotted with no profession badges or skill titles. This could be fixed with an Image designer skill to be added or given 15 skill points to attain a novice skill title to blend in and not be noticeable. This would give the illusion of Jedi being rare at the same time.
Part 5 Conclusion
Of course on top of all that was mentioned above there should be fixes to all the current outstanding bugs. All specials for classes should work. Things like group tef and such need to be addressed as well. Once all everything is fixed it may be worth re-subscribing to the game. As it stands now anyone can reach the end game within a couple of weeks. Mastering your profession should be a goal not a 2 day grind. Finishing your template should be rewarding, not incentive to work a new template because there is nothing more for you to attain or do. As always more content and such need to be added as well. This game has a lot of unrealized potental. These are my ideas. You may or may not agree with them. But if the majority of them were implimented it would bring about a balance to things and give greater reason to persue a further subscription.
Within the game there is not a class that cannot be mastered within a week. This is excluding Jedi. Most of the advanced classes can be mastered with a couple of days. All experience boxes should be increased 10X. Rather than 1000 xp to get your first pistol box it should be 10000 per box.
Yes that reminds me, we should be able to have different coloured jackets (I wish they'd expand the waist on it)and pants, and also one other thing, I wonder if it's possible to get a little prop thing that you can put on that shows your imperial rank (like the batteries in the pockets and the blue and red board things).
Also what would be great is if we could put a robe over armour and jackets, instead of one or the other, but this causes clipping errors. yet again it is possible to make it so specific things disapear when a robe is on. I'd love to wear a gunman's duster over my composite armour. The belts on the other hand annoy the hell out of me, they look stupid, make them so they aren't so far away from the body, I hate wearing belts they look utterly silly on me. make them so they are clos fitting.
Thunderheart...please tackle the camping problem.
Example.The Borgle Cave on the Chilastra server is nearly always camped by people; often using 3rd party spawn looting software! this makes doing theat dungeon almost completely pointless because there is no loot at the end of it.
Often you go down through the dungeon and 5 or more players are standing there auto looting. Now there has to be some simple solutions to this
)
Suggestion :-
1) Make the creatures at the bottom attack the campers. At the moment in the borgle cave; you have the Matriarch Borgle and a whole bunch of Great Borgles in close proximity to the campers. Yet they do nothing. They do not attack or even seem concerned about it. My opinion is that all camped areas should have mobs that auto attack any player there as soon as they spawn. This would go a long way to preventing the problem. True the Borgles are not uber mobs; but a camping player is not using his combat skills effectively. He is standing there reaction defending without using specials so is naturally vulnerable and will die either on the first attack of the borgles or else the second or third time they spawn. Thats fine. As it is now they can stay there all night taking tapes and attachments worth in excess of 1-3 million credits in a single night if they are lucky.
please please please make wookie armor or something better than just a little better stats, i don't think it is fun grinding tka just to find myself getting killed by a freaking genosian in one shot. that's not fair, why do you think there are not many wookie characters out there. this is bull**edit** and if you guys won't revamp than can you please change my character into a different species, because i don't think i should have to restart my character just because you guys think wookies should be pussies. i know that im not the only one who thinks that wookies are unfairly made weak. maybe if wookie battle padding was armor not clothing it would help but maybe not,maybe shield generators for wookies only that are of very good quality, i don't know that's why you guys are the developers, the stat goodies aren't enough for wookies, take away the stat goodies and give armor or something to add defense. please please please.
tobuckonag ahazi server
ThePhilosopher wrote...
Version 2.2 - Revised 2/11/2004
Clarification: When I use the term "Light Jedi" in this post, I am referring to Jedi Apprentices and above. In other words, someone who has committed themselves to the Light Side. Padawans and below, although Rebel by default, are not yet committed to one side or the other, and should be considered as such.
General Changes
- Let each side keep all the powers they have now. Many sources of the EU state that "powers aren't good or evil, it's how you use them," and that is a valid point. Nerfing one side or the other isn't going to help that, or make anyone happy.
- Give BOTH sidesSOME state defenses to Dizzy, Stun, Knockdown, Intimidate, and Posture change, which they are currently both lacking (How many times in the movies did you see Jedi get dizzied, stunned, or knocked off balance? Not often).
- Give BOTH sides some melee and ranged Damage Mitigation.
- MeleeMitigation 1 at Initiate
- Ranged Mitigation 1 at Padawan
- Melee Mitigation2 at Apprentice
- Ranged Mitigation2 at Knight
- Melee Mitigation3 at Guardian
- Ranged Mitigation3 at Master
- Add some single-state state heals to the lower parts of the tree. There needs to be SOME way to heal states before Guardian.
- Move Stop Bleeding to the Padawan Box.
- Add Heal Stun and Heal Blindto the Healing 4 box of Initiate.
- Add Heal Intimidate to theApprentice box.
- Add Heal Dizzy to the 4th Knight healing box.
- Heal States, the all-in-one, should remain where it is.
- Balance the Force Power & Force Regeneration amounts to be of equal effectiveness for both sides.
- Currently, Dark Jedi end up with +30 Force Regeneration.
- Currently, Light Jedi end up with +58 Force Regeneration, which isalmost twice as much.
- The 1000 extra Force Power Dark Jedi get to compensate is only about 15% more.
- almost 100% more Force Regeneration Vs. 15% more Force Power does NOT seem to be balanced.
- Either make the stats equal on both sides,give Dark Jedi More extra Force Power to compensate, or make the difference between the two regeneration rates less, to balance it out.
- Change the Saber crafting system to be different for both sides, as it was in the continuity.
- Light Jedi foraged for crystals. Light Jedi did not take the time to make Red Sabers, because their sabers were for self defense, not to attack with.
- Dark Jedi crafted synthetic ones. Only Dark Jedi used Red sabers, and Red sabers had stronger cutting power than the other types.
- Stop all Red Force Crystal Drops, and make Red no longer a possible color on pearls. Red Crystals should be synthetically made only, as they were in the continuity.
- Make the InitiateTraining Saber blue or green, not red. Red should be a Dark Jedi only color (Look at what the kids were training with in Episode 2).
- Pearls used by Dark Jedi to craft a saber, would translate the color of the pearl into its red equivalent. For instance, Light Green would become Light Red, Dark Yellow would become Dark Red, and Blue would become Red.
- Force Run 1 and Force Run 2, should not give a TEF when used.
- It's generally understood that the purpose of the system is to make Jedi that are "showing off" their powers around others, to make themselves open to attack
- However, from a common sense standpoint, to an observer, a Jedi running using Force Run would look no different to that person than a Non-Jedi using Burst Run.
- The TEF generated leaves the Jedi in a "screwed if you do, screwed if you don't" situation when attacked by a Bounty Hunter around others. They are left with the choice to either use Force Run to get away, and make themselves vulnerable to even more attackers, or not use it and allow that one person to pound on them as they try to get away.
- The Force Run skills are the ONLY Jedi skills that cost Force Points, but do not give any Jedi XP when used. Balance out this disadvantage by removing the generated TEF.
- Give Jedi some Restricted First-Strike Ability
- Currently, with the TEF system in place, Jedi can never attack anyone, who doesn't attack them first, unless they go overt, which cannot be removed without dying.
- Give Jedi the ability to attack Overts of the opposing faction, as well as TEFed Coverts.
- Make the TEF on Bounty Hunter Missions two-way.
- Give Jedi the ability to retaliate against those who attack same-faction members in their group.
- Give each side some new, unique skills, that the other side doesn't have, to make each fit its role better.
Light Jedi
"A Jedi uses the force for knowledge, and defense, NEVER to attack." -Yoda-
- Light Jedi should be the Masters of Defense, and their force skills should reflect this.
- Give Light Jedi an effectiveness multiplier to all healing skills, so they can heal themselves better.
- For powers that cannot be made more effective, such as Total Heal Self, and the heal states skills, give them a cost reduction instead.
- Givea force cost penalty for using offensive skills, such as Lightning, Choke, Weaken, and Intimidate.
- At Light Jedi Apprentice, grant the ability to forage for crystals.
- Allow this "quest" to be done only once per day.
- /crystalsense - gives the Jedia random planet to travel to, where they may try to find a crystal.
- /crystalfind - upon arriving at the designated planet, this command will generate a waypoint on that planet. Upon reaching the waypoint, the ability is used again.Makeit possible to take several attempts tofind theexact crystal location (kind of like a treasure map, only you won't be finding a CDEF pistol and 1 unit of crappy metal). Upon finding the "true" crystal location, a message is given, indicating so.
- /crystalextract - The Jedi uses the force to extract the crystal from deep underground. This takes several minutes, during which the Jedi cannot move, or perform any other actions, without aborting the attempt. Using this ability gives the Jedia TEF. Depending on the final location of the crystal, the Jedi may or may not find it worth the risk to extract it. Allow crystals to be found anywhere, except within municipal zones.
- Give crystals found through this ability a significantly lower Force Cost Modifier, than crystals looted, or crafted by Dark Jedi.
- Twin Crystals should be findable with this ability, but only after Guardian level is attained. It would be frustrating to constantly find useless crystals with this ability.
- Make these crystals most likely to be Blue or Green, the two most commonly seen colors.
- Yellow, Orange, Purple, and Brown should be possible to find, but much less likely. This wouldadd to the coolness effect of having a "rare" saber color.
- Make these crystals untradeable, to preventpeople from farming these to sell (Jedi should have no need for money anyway).
- Grant 10,000 Jedi xp for a successfully extracted crystal. This will give Jedi a way to earn xp, other than by running around killing stuff all the time, and would compensate the Jedi for the amount of time spent finding the crystal, which could potentially take up to an hour or more. The "once per day" rule would keep this from being farmed.
- Modified Power: Jedi Mind Trick- Jedi try to avoid conflict wherever possible, and this should be their main tool for doing so. Keep its current functionality when used on pets, but add the following effect: when used on any player, it renders that player unable to attack the Jedi for 30 seconds. Give this power the following restrictions:
- Can only be used on one player at a time, with a cooldown of a couple of minutes.
- Will not work on Other Jedi (Obviously).
- Will not work on any player who is a Master of at least one Elite Profession (Mind Tricks only work on the weak-minded).
- In other words, Novice BH (i.e. Greedo) can be Mind Tricked, but a Master BH (i.e. Jango Fett) cannot.
- New Power: Force Absorb - When activated, provides a chance to absorb incoming force power attacks, from Player Dark Jedi, and from NPC's such as Nightsisters.20-30% chance at Apprentice, 40-50% chance at Knight, 60-70% chance at Master.
- New Power: Force Area Heals- Heals all same faction members/group members within a 20m radius of the Jedi.
- These would be for damage only, not wounds.
- Heal Health Area at Guardian Healing 1.
- Heal Action Area at Guardian Healing 2.
- Heal MInd Area at Guardian Healing 3.
- Heal All Area at Guardian Healing 4.
- Total Heal Other would remain Single Target only.
- New Power: ForceFocus - A Jedi should be able to calmtheir mind in the middle of battle, concentrating alltheir efforts ontheir own defense. This skill, when active, should make the Jedi much harder to hit,damage, and knock off balance.
- Apprentice: +5 Lightsaber Block, +10Melee/RangedDefense, 20% reduction to all damage inflicted, +15All State Defenses
- Knight: +10 Lightsaber Block, +20Melee/RangedDefense, 35% reduction to all damage inflicted, +30All State Defenses.
- Master: +15 Lightsaber Block, +30Melee/RangedDefense, 50% reduction to all damage inflicted, +45All State Defenses.
- Keep in mind these numbers would assume that some level of natural defenses/damage mitigationare given to Jedi, and these would be a BOOST to those levels. Otherwise, the numbers would need to be higher for this to be an effective skill.
Dark Jedi
"Use your aggressive feelings! Let the hateflow through you!!" -The Emperor-
- Dark Jedi should be the Masters of Offense, and their skills should reflect this.
- Give Dark Jedi an effectiveness multiplier to all offensive skills, so they can deal out more damage.
- For powers that cannot be made more effective, such as Intimidate, give a cost reduction instead.
- Givea force cost penalty for using healing skills, such as Battle Fatigue, Wound Heals, and Damage Heals.
- Give Dark Jedi Schematics for Crafting their own Red Force Crystals.
- These crystals should require a unique new resource, that only Dark Jedi can survey for, and extract.
- Dark Jedi should have to seek out and survey this material themselves, rather than just have a friend's main character plop down a harvester.
- Make the damage and speed statistics onthem superior to regular Force Crystals.
- Make these crystals untradeable. Dark Jedi should NOT be crafting crystals for their initiate friends who have not fallen to the Dark Side, or selling them to Light Jedi (Both of these situations would be REALLY stupid, and would happen without this restriction).
- Apprentice:Grant a schematic for a Red Force Crystal.
- Knight: Grant a schematic for a Superior Red Force Crystal.
- Guardian: Grant a schematic for a Red Twin Force Crystal
- Master:Grant a schematic for anUltimate Red ForceCrystal and a Superior Red Twin ForceCrystal.
- Pearls would still be useable by Dark Jedi, but the outcome color would automatically be changed into the Red equivalent of that color.
- Light (Whatever) would become Light Red.
- Plain (Whatever) would become Red.
- Dark (Whatever) would become Dark Red.
- Modified Power: ForceLightning - Add a Knockdown Effect to Lightning Single2, and Lightning Cone 2. (Luke sure seemed to get knocked down by it).
- New Power: Force Drain - Steals the Target's HAM, using it to recharge the user's HAM.
- These would cause damage to the target, and return a % of the damage done to the target to the Dark Jedi's own pool.
- Force Drain Health at Guardian Healing 1.
- Force Drain Action at Guardian Healing 2.
- Force Drain Mind at Guardian Healing 3.
- Force Drain All at Guardian Healing 4.
- New Power: ForceStealth - "The Dark Side Clouds Everything" - well it sure should. If Palpatine can cloud himself from the entire Jedi Order, including Yoda, a Dark Jedi in this game should be able to cloud himself from one person following him. This could work in several ways, depending on what is possible, and easiest to code. It might even be possible to include all three of these (such as /forcestealth1, /forcestealth2 and /forcestealth3), so that it would be harder for another player to catch on (besides, deception takes many forms).
- #1 - Hide the Dark Jedi's dot from the radar.
- #2 -Makethe Dark Jedi'sradar dota different color to fool anyone that would be looking. For instance, make his name and dot purple to the player looking at it, even though that Dark Jedi might be TEFed and would still be targetable (the person looking mightnot figure out he is TEFed, or not figure out soon enough for the Dark Jedi to escape)
- #3 - Removethe Dark Jedi'sname from over his head, or replace it with a Fake, randomly-generatedNPC name and title.
- New Power: ForceRage - Harnessing the power oftheir anger,Dark Jedi unleash adevastating flurry of attacks againsttheir opponent. When used, this should give the Dark Jedi greatly increased Movement Speed, Attack Speed, Attack Damage, Attack Accuracy, and the ability to knocktheir opponent off balance. Grant this skill at Apprentice, and make its effectiveness increase with level.
- Apprentice: 60 second duration, +35 1H/2H Lightsaber Speed, 50% bonus to all damage inflicted, +50 1H/2H Lightsaber Accuracy, 10% chance of Knockdown added to all basic attacks.
- Knight:90 second duration, +70 1H/2H/PA Lightsaber Speed, 100% bonus to all damage inflicted, +100 1H/2H/PA Lightsaber Accuracy, 20% chance of Knockdown added to all basic attacks.
- Master:120 second duration, +100 1H/2H/PA Lightsaber Speed, 150% bonus to all damage inflicted, +150 1H/2H/PA Lightsaber Accuracy, 30% chance of Knockdown added to all basic attacks