Development Cycle Archive

1) A person can dictate how much combat they want in their character. If you want to do a ranged profession plus a melee profession for up close they can. If they want to craft and have combat they can. It is all up to the person. However, there should be advantages in combat if someone chooses to Master 2 combat professions. Mastering 2 crafting professions, most of the time has bonuses. Some professions rely on others, so a Chef that is also a BE has the advantage of putting additives in their food without having to buy them from a BE. A Rifleman should get a bonus while using a rifle if they decide to also Master Fencer or Pistoleer. Crafting and Combat are somewhat different as Combat is timebased. The chef can still get a bonus from BE even though the skills don't exactly merge together. That is an issue for combat. As Shooting once with a Rifle and then once with a Pistol isn't exactly a bonus. At least not enough of one to make someone Master both professions. A Master Rifleman/Pistoleer should be able to beat a Rifleman/Architect in almost all curcumstances. Obviously play style comes into play, but 2 people of the same skill, the one that but twice as many point into combat skills should win.

2)Balance is the biggest issue. Balance is insanely hard to do if you are trying to balance apples and oranges. Giving one bones to profession x might not be equal to another bonus to profession y. The simple solution is to make those bonus very close to the same so they can be compared a little eaiser.

3)The differnet classes still have different skills and different bonues in combat. However if 2 combat professions are combined they get some global bonus. 2 ranged professions should have the same overal bonus as any other 2 ranged professions. The unqiness is going to be in the skills/weapons they use. A ranged/melee template should have the same overall bonus as anyother ranged/melee template. But it is still the profession they choose to use in combat that determines the main skills they use. A Ranged/Ranged vs Ranged/Melee should not be even. At longer distances the first should win, at close distance the 2nd should win as they have some melee skills.

4)These suggestions go somewhat away from what I said above. Another option is to create elite-elite combat professions. Not just a new profession on top of Rifleman or something. A new profession or a new small set of skills the person has access to if they Master 2 elite professions. These don't require any more skill points or at the most very few more(less than 10). Examples would be Rifleman/Pikeman. They have access to a new weapon that is similar to a bayonet(rifle with a knife at the end). Very nice ranged dmg and then they can also use it as a very decent pike in close combat. An example for crafting would be to adding a new set of schematics if someone had Armorsmith and BE they would be able to make some new enhancers. There are major balance issues with the crafting as you don't want to ruin those that are Armorsmiths or Just BE's. But some sort or bonus I think would be nice if someone wanted to invest all those skill points.

5)Nope.

"What do you think the strengths of professions mix and match are?"

They allow fora player to not be confined to a specific role and therefore smaller groups of people can tackle the same challenges that would would take maybe twice as many if eveyone had to specialize. Also the 'hidden' factor of having many healers in a group of combat characters can create for some fun challenges as opposed to everyone finding the healer and taking them out of combat first.

"What do you think the weaknesses of professions mix and match are?"

As much as I love this... the mix and match allows for massive amounts of "soloability" and that is potenially not good for an MMO environment where one wants to promote group interdependancy. But as I said... I like to solo

"How do you think we should maintain the unique skillset flavor the game is built on?"

I would say run a monte-carlo stylesimulation of all possible combinations of professions and balance them based on the results. Do this for each box of the tree. At this point the only difference in players will be their tactics, equipment, and skill points invested. People can then select the profession they find enjoyable without having to worry about if they will do 'enough' damage in combat.

"What are some neat combinations that would be good for the game?"

I can't really think of any combinations at the moment that aren't already achieveable in game.

"Anything else you want to say on this subject?"

Coming up with a balance while maintaining a sense of individuality is going to be tough. People will inevitably find the best template (as can be seen with the defence-stacking PvP template at the moment). If you eliminate the differences in damage and defense profession-to-profession then any one profession will be as good as another on even-ground. Tactics & Equipment should be the deciding factor.

I think the key here is that each profession or group of professions needs a specific role and relationship to others. Asking players for input is good, but in this case the developers need to make the decisions, implement the professions so that they have their designed function and relationship to other professions and then ask players how they like it and how to make it better.

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SmakU-Awound wrote:

Another possibility would be a Scout / Droid Engineer that can capture wild creatures with large scale traps. (a possibility to add non-tameables to the creatures that can be owned. These creatures would require a higher level of control and have the ability to go wild on a user. (Hey, CH's can't sell much any more anyway, so adding competition to the creature peddling industry isn't nearly as bad as the benefit to them in training the beasts.)

For combat a possibility would be to create a Commando / Engineer type who could setup non-movable heavy weapons, shield generators, etc. that can allow the introduction of some serious battlefield activity and faction intensity. They would have to setup the equipment without making an attack on an opponent and so would require protection and planning, but would be devastating if allowed to act unmolested. weapons could include mortars, missile launchers, heavy lasers, shield generators, area of affect weapons such as sound emitters, etc.

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I totally agreethat we need stuff likethis, though I am a fim believer that nothing a player can set up or order around should be as strong in combat as fighting the player himself (except in the cases like Creature Handlers with no combat skills). Mortars, missile launchers, traps, etc. would all be great, but there aren't many situations where they could be implemented currently - maybe after the war heats up. Also, I thought this whole thread was devoted to combat profession mix and match? Hence the title.

What do you think the strengths of professions mix and match are?

The strength is choice and flexibility. I can shoot, swing a sword, and heal myself. I can do anything and everything, depending on my mood or need. Better for more solo play.


What do you think the weaknesses of professions mix and match are?

I can game the system with this model. I can remove dependency on others.


How do you think we should maintain the unique skillset flavor the game is built on?

As someone else mentioned, give each profession a unique THING, and that THING should not be available for 15 xp. That THING or THINGS should also help in combat (giving combat characters reason to further diversify). Doctors can buff, for instance. This requires a whole lot to get and is quite unique. Weaponsmiths might be able to retune a weapon, giving them a temporary ability that wears off over a short time. Musicians might get access to special sonic weapons. You get the idea. Each profession should add something unique, and each should be able to add something unique to combat.

What are some neat combinations that would be good for the game?

Anything but combat profession/Doctor. Right now, the doctor's ability to self-buff is more attractive than most other templates. We need other professions to give other advantages that will make a combat player pause and think about which profession he would like to dabble significantly into.

Anything else you want to say on this subject?

Mixing and matching is good. Mixing and stacking is bad. (Easily abusable, as you have seen.) So instead of getting a stack, thus making you uber, you get something else.

Be thoughtful of new abilities. Knockdown was abused because it gave an absolute advantage in a combat situation. Any new abilities given should not be absolute. Any ability should provide advantages and deliver disadvantages, but no ability should create an absolute situtation. If knockdown had only cause a slower rate of fire, it would not have been abused.

I couldseea couple of different variations

1. Either more restricted path so you have to master all three professions for a certain master profession (make a master of the profession be able to wield a weapondry only held by masters)

2. Eleminate skill trees and allow people to choose whatever skill they want to learn and assign a certain point value to each skill. So if I wanted to have meditation 1-4 it might cost me a lot of points but i do not need to do unarmed or teras.

This would create a very broad and wide range of characters.

Make it a point system like other rpgs

ie. You have this much combat exp you can learn any of the following skills or save up for more advanced skills.

The problem, I have with the swg charcter build is I like to be a powerful force when fighting creatures but I also enjoy the crafting side (which is necessary to provide income into this game) I can not imagine playing a character for just profit or only combat.

The problem encountered would be to narrow down certain options in my choice. A combat profession can honestly not afford the 8k for doc buffs or the composite armor by doing missions. So he either needs to go up scout to harvest hides or he makes no money and is broke.

The artisans' on the other hand can not hold their wait in combat but can make millions.

I dont expect combat profession to be as rich as a arcitecht who has to run when a monster approaches.

But I would like someway for each profession to be self sufficient and able to prosper for new weapons and money.

This way each race/profession could contribute a little more to the economy.

The closet build currently out there is the Smuggler fighting with money making abbillities by selling spice.

Doctors can heal all day long but theyneed artisan to survey for minerals and that takes away from the combat class they could of held.

Just my thoughts

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Thunderheart wrote:

>The community is invited to make commentsthrough April. At that time, the thread will be closed to further comments. Feel free to comment on any or all of the above items. Please stay on topic.

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