Development Cycle Archive

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Thunderheart wrote:

Given the basic considerations listed above, please answer the following questions:

What defines theTeras Kasi Artistrole in combat?

Master of Unarmed, Close Range Combat.

What basic combat elements should they possess?

Close Range Damage and Aaccuracy as well as Special moves at Close Range.

What offensive abilities?

Over the progression thru the profession; TKA - TKM these should include:

Knockdown Moves (Leg sweeps, ect...), Posture Changing Moves (Crippeling moves to legs, ect...),Disarming moves (Disarming opponents weapons at close range), State Effect moves (Stun, Dizzy, Blind, ect...), Specific Target Moves (Head=Mind,Legs=Action, Body=Health). Most we already have (except thePosture change and disarming)

What defensive abilities?

Over the progression thru the profession; TKA-TKM these should include:

Defense vs. Melee (Other meele professions), Dodge (Ranged and Melee), Counter Attack (against other meele opponents), Defense vs. State effects (Stun, Dizzy, Blind, ect...) Defense vs. Posture Change, Defense vs. Knockdown, ect.... We have most of these but they should be balanced thru out all Meele classes.

What unique abilities?

Meditation, Power Boost of HAM, Power Boost of Secondary stats at Mater Level, Center of Being, Stealth movement (ability to sneak up on targets). (Most we have except Secondary Stat Power Boost and stealth)

Should add what advantage or asset in group combat?

TKA/TKM should be on the Frontlines of Combat. But in order to do this they must be able to have stealth. To be able to sneak up on a target. They should be the Tanks for the Ranged members of the group, be hard to hit when at close range but be vulnerable to ranged attacks.

How could/should they interact with other professions?

TKA/TKM should be on an even level with all the other Elite Meele professions who are at the same levels (ie: Master TK vs. Master Pikeman) and the players tactics should determine the winner/loser.

TKA/TKM should be at a disadvantage against Ranged opponents except when at close range where they can use thier abilities to Disarm, Knockdown, ect.... thier opponent.

What interaction / dependencies should exist with other combatants?

TKA/TKM should be stealthy and be able to sneak up on targets (with a chance of them being detected). I do not think any profession should be dependent on another except in group situations (IE: Kryat Dragons, Large groups of high Level NPC's). Tactics should determine the outcome ofone on one combat between either NPC's or PC's.

What should be their unique role in the Galactic Civil War?

The Role of a TKA/TKM in the GCW should be what ever the player wants it to be (as with all professions) There should be no defined role for professions in the GCW.

Request For Comments:

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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Here, let me be the first person to make a post about TKA that isn't WAY over-thought.

TKA is basically hand to hand combat. Think about where this applies in the Real World. Special Forces and Spying are probably the only two professions that stand to gain from Martial Arts training.

Why? Because their job is stealth, and the odds that you would need to take out one or two people in a somewhat quiet manner would be much higher in such professions.

I think sending TKA players with no ranged skills into open battleis basically retarded. In any type of infantry war situation, they will simply be bled, burned just plain shot down before they can kill more than a couple players. Now put them in a role where they get to sneak around behind enemy lines as a spy or a "under cover" spec ops player, and you have a "combat role" for them.

What defines theTeras Kasi Artistrole in combat?

To get in close, (tank) deal out quick KD's, blind's, stuns and intimmidates.
they are also here to keep in check the jedi. which means lone missions or small TK groups.

What basic combat elements should they possess?

high Kinetic resist with out armour, higher than normal force resists, especially at master.
Quick and devastateing moves or combinations.

What offensive abilities?

Ability to drop an opponent quickly, many martial arts can "incap" and oppenent in 3 hits and none of those do "wound" damage. I have seen some people say low mele damage, This should NOT be the case. TK is a martial art, one that would be considered a "Hard" style. the majority of hard styles do exceptional damage, bone breaking, dislocations, incap hits, the entire idea is drop the target in the shortest amount of time. In game terms high damage, but there should be an option to do damage or wound damage.

What defensive abilities?

High kinetic resists, dodge, ranged attack defense, mele defense, counter attack.

What unique abilities?

keep current abilities, expand at master LVL heall ALL stats by meditation to include BF.

Should add what advantage or asset in group combat?

area effect intimidation when grouped possibly, add small resists to force influence

How could/should they interact with other professions?

this is an interesting idea, TK's Martial Artist, are loners, they have learned to handle many things by themselves with in the monastaries with litle outside influence. But this is SW and not the real world interaction is however the player wants to interact, you need doctors for buffs to add to your own boost. you need weaponsmiths to make your weapons etc.

What interaction / dependencies should exist with other combatants?

grouping with a ranged weapons person is ideal, along with combat medic for ranged heals. while teh TK stands in close and does all the damage he can.

What should be their unique role in the Galactic Civil War?

I would also like to direct TH's attention to the thread "What do you want a teras kasi artist to be?" where there was a lot of discussion about this. (Some less to the point of the rebalance than the rest, sadly.)

What defines the Teras Kasi Artist role in combat?

The TKA's most defining characteristics are agility and discipline. By that I mean that as far as both defense and offense go, the teras kasi artist wins by skill, not brute force.

What basic combat elements should they possess?

In general, TKAs must be close-in fighters. In the past, this has been construed by the devs to mean that TKAs should be good at fighting in enclosed spaces, rather than outdoors. The unfortunate drawback to this approach is that there is almost no indoor fighting in SWG. My take on being a close-in fighter is that TKAs must be able to close with an opponent relatively safely and then stay in close. Problems like the current large-hitbox-creature-kites-player issue make big trouble for this.

Balance-wise, because a TKA's fighting style is based primarily on skill, defense should outweigh offense. We use no weapons, we strike quickly, aiming to make use of weaknesses in an enemy's defenses, rather than simply slugging them with our biggest punches until they fall over.

What offensive abilities?

Offensively, we should have a fairly large "bag of tricks". One approach to making our attacks more skill based is to increase the power of some of our debuffs so that they can work effectively on higher level opponents, while decreasing our base damage output. In short, our tricks should be more effective than our base attacks, whereas for most combat professions, it's likely the other way around, with well-chosen tricks contributing a little bit to the basic damage output.

What defensive abilities?

Teras kasi artists should avoid damage rather than taking damage. Instead of "Unarmed Toughness", you might have "Unarmed Agility" or something. Same behavior, different name. All it changes is the implication that the character is just standing there, grunting, and taking the hit. Alternately, reduce toughness and make acuity really effective, so that at high levels a TKA is still dodging a large number of incoming attacks. (My character dodges more with a pistol equipped and *no* pistol skills at all, not even novice marksman, than the character does as a master TKA.)

What unique abilities?

The unique abilities of the TKA should be a wider range of more effective special attacks (debuffs) than other melee fighters. basically, a big bag of tricks.

Should add what advantage or asset in group combat?

One possibility is the ability to "tank" better than many, since offensive abilities will be low and defensive high. But I also believe that the debuffs provide a great tool for helping the group. If one of the debuffs were a slight reduction in the enemy's damage resistance, that helps the entire group. Likewise, reducing the enemy's damage output. etc.

How could/should they interact with other professions?

Teras kasi artists should depend more on other professions for damage output in higher level encounters. Like all melee professions, ranged and healers should be very happy to have them up close and personal with the enemy, so a TKA has to have enough defenses to actually last for a while up there, even if they don't kill the critter instantly.

That said, they should depend on good healing support for prolonged contact with the enemy, and the additional sorts of debuffs that scouts and rangers can apply to creatures should help even more. It's possible that teras kasi debuffs should work better on persons than on creatures--although the dearth of NPCs that are worth fighting makes that idea less than satisfactory. If there is such an emphasis, it must not be so large that a TKA is not useful hunting creatures.

Sample group combat session would be: group pulls an enemy or group of enemies. TKA works to get the attention of the enemies, and particularly begins trying to debuff the toughest of them. Other melee people close in and start clearing the place out now that some debuffs are in place, likewise ranged attackers. Medics generally stick up close to the melee people to keep them alive, but don't have to worry as much as if the pistoleer or rifleman had aggro.

What interaction / dependencies should exist with other combatants?

TKAs should depend on other professions for high powered damage output at high levels. An even con single opponent should be workable with the wide range of debuffs available, but higher cons in groups should be difficult if the TKA is the only damage dealer.

What should be their unique role in the Galactic Civil War?

Likewise, debuffing. This could be especially interesting if the defensive capabilities are sufficient to let them close to close range with enemy ranged attackers--the TKA may not have enough "oomph" to take them down, but should be able to drop debuffs on enough of the enemy that her allies can close in and cause mayhem. In this context, the TKA can be the first-strike that softens up the enemy for the attack.

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Thunderheart wrote:

There are two basic set of combat skills any profession should have. The first are Redundant Abilities. These are abilities that either most or all combat professions posses, in other words, “everyman combat skills”.

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A Final Note On Experience: Seeing as how experience is directly related to how much damage you do, it is obvious that Teras Kasi will be at a severe disadvantage. Instead of decreasing the experience required to master the profession, you might want to consider coming up with a system that rewards the player with experience for damage evaded or "tanked." Or, if you feel this version of the Teras Kasi needs another disadvantage, you can leave the experience requirements alone, and make it harder to master.

Thanks for reading this far... I guess it's obvious you don't suffer from ADD

TKA is the only profession in the game that works. Don't touch it. You should balance all other professions to this one. This is the one you got right. If you want to add something to it fine. But don't increase any requirements or skill points or any of that BS. I am a Master Brawler and a TKA Master. it took me four months of playing to get there and I am just starting to enjoy the other aspects of the game. Grinding levels is lame. This is supposed to be roleplaying not what job do I want this week.
The TKA should be the closest thing to a Jedi in the game.
If you want to add specials I have suggested throwing stars for a ranged attack of 15 - 20 meters in the Brawler thread as a means of counter balancing kiting.
A neat thing would be to add a mask scent type of ability that works only against the people like targets and maybe only in darkness hours. I kind of ninja stealth that would allow TKA's the ability to sneak up or charactor MOB's to attack them one by one. Maybe went I kill he or she they scream out and the rest here and aggro. Maybe I break there neck with one silent move and no one knows better so I can proceed to the next target.

Another idea is to allow TKA Masters aquire the ability to detect the presense of Jedi due to their meditative abilites they too can percieve fluctuations is they force.
Not as well as a Jedi but enough to track them minimally.
Something like the ranger tracking that only works on charactor type targets. It could be TKA and Bounty Hunter teams like a real sniper section with a shooter and a spotter. This would be only a local ability. The tracking droids should be the way to close on the mark when great distances or interplanetary searchs are conducted.

Say you have to take out a MOB Boss. You send out the droids to find the general location. The BH TKA team moves in. They locate the mark. Blam the Bounty Hunter slams the target dead. But there are other bad guys or good guys in the vicinity who aggro and come a running. The Bounty Hunter wips out his pistol for close range combat and the TKA does his stuff. That could be a fun way to spend the afternoon or evening a sort of mini quest a few friends could do. Add a Medic or a Doc ? maybe taking two or three hours to complete with travel and all.

Just some thoughts or how to add more fun and possibilites to the game that I love to play.