Doctor Archive
Thread: A Review of Doctor Facts UPDATES with new CU data
Page 1 of 4
SantosL
Wed Mar 23, 2005 2:51 pm
#1
Since there seems to be much debate on what is going on, this is a list, verbatim, of information directly from the Devs. No hearsay, no conjectures, just what we've been given from the developers. Text in RED contain my comments to clarify.
-Star Wars characters will now have a single hit point bar, called "Health". When health reaches zero, the player is incapacitated.
-Players no longer have the so-called "drain" stats: Strength, Quickness, and Focus. They will continue to have the recharge stats "Constitution", "Stamina", and "Willpower", however they will be called "health regeneration rate", "action regeneration rate", and "mind regeneration rate".
No more drain stats means no more Str/Quick wound packs, buff packs.
-A character's maximum health will increase with the character's combat level up to 300%. New character health will be 1000, maxed character health will be 3000.
-Short term buffs will modify this health value no more than 20%.
-Long term buffs will modify this health value no more than 10%.
In terms of buffs, we are unsure which category our buff will fall in to.
-The following profession trees will be modified by adding and removing new special abilities to bring them in line with the new system: Marksmen, Medic, Brawler, Scout, Riflemen, Pistoleer, Carbineer, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Commando, Pikeman, Swordsman, Fencer, Jedi, TKA, Doctor, Combat Medic.
Doctor falls in the modified professions, we do not know what is changing with the exception of the removal of the Doctor crafting.
-All of the above professions will be re-balanced so that mastery requires a more equal number of skill points for each of the elite professions. No player will be able to master three elite combat professions.
Based upon this, it would appear that the number of skill points for Doctor will be changed along with the other professions listed.
-Players that have skill boxes in one of these affected professions will be allowed a skill re-spec for their character. This does not include the force sensitive skills. (A re-spec is short for "respecify". It is the chance to choose new skills for your character).
As Doctor is one of the changing professions, we will be given a respec.
-The group UI will be re-worked so that you can see the buffs and de-buffs applied to other group members.
These following changes directly affect us:
Healing/Doctor/CM Changes
-Medical crafting will be handled by the crafting line in Medic as well as Bio-Engineers.
Doctor will no longer be crafting. Crafting will be done via the medic crafting tree, and other crafting to BE. We do not know what is considered "Medic" craftables, nor do we know what will be moved to BE.
-Doctors will have enhanced abilities that are enhanced with the use of consumables called enhancers.
From vortexala - Enhancers are just that, enhancers. They are not required to perform your medical abilities, they simply enhance your 'natural' abilities.
-Enhancers are on a 1000 point scale - the higher the number the better.
-The quality of Enhancer charges will vary per ability. We are aiming for an average of ~20%.
-We are adding craftable stimulant packs (stims) that can be used by anyone. Stims are one shot consumables that require no skill boxes to use.
-The use of the different stims will be determined by the player’s combat level. (i.e., novice players will be able to use the lower level stims while the elite players will be able to use the higher level stims)
-Players will use stims by double clicking them. Each use will consume one charge. Each use has an associated cool-down time.
-Stims can modify your health ~10%. You can’t use your stims to heal someone else.
-Food, spices, and medications will be altered to conform to the new rules.
Buffs/stims/wound packs/etc. are going to be re-adjusted to fit the system.
-We are revamping the skill point costs of elite combat professions to be more even across the board, though they will not be 100% identical.
"Be ready to engage in the new, faster-paced Star Wars Galaxies combat system. As we finalize the various systems, we will continue to bring you updates and ask for your input. Please remember to keep your discussions constructive, we appreciate your feedback.
And again, please remember that this is In-Development. Things will change based on your feedback about the overall fun of the game. Looking forward to your comments!"
Quote from Thunderherat regarding change-over of items.
This is a great example of the type of question we'll need to review as a group to get you the best answer. From a general sense, this type of thing will be covered in what we are calling the "Item Conversion" part of the process. Because of SWG's highly customizable crafting system, each of these items exists in the database as a unique item. Different items may be handled in different ways, so rather than post a general answer, we will collect these types of questions, review them with the CU dev team and come back sometime next week with more specific answers.
Quote from Thunderheart regarding buffs/crafting.
UPDATES
From Blair's Blog, Monday
What's going to happen to all the existing items?
* We are going to convert all existing items to what they need to be. In some cases, the functionality of an item no longer exists, so we will adapt it to make it useful under the new system. Stims (Stimulants) fall into this category. Many of you are concerned about weapons. In many cases the speed and damage values of your weapons will change. As part of the conversion, we are maintaining the scale of all the weapons across the servers. This means, that if you had one of the most powerful weapons on the server before CU, you will still have one of the most powerful weapons on the server after CU. Though it is likely the stats will have been altered.
Will we be getting detailed information about the skills before we re-specify how we want our character's stats redistributed (respec)? Or, will we get a trial period (say, a week or so) when we can re-spec at-will to try everything out?
* We realize how important this issue is, so let me say what we hope to do, and add the disclaimer that we haven't done it yet, so it may change. We are currently working toward the idea that you will have time to play with your new skills and have the option of trying out different combinations. We don't know how long this will last, but I like your idea of letting players experiment with different iterations for a week before needing to make a final choice.
New stuff from CU article -
Information regarding healing in general:
The healing professions in Star Wars Galaxies have been primarily crafting professions, linking players to their factories to create massive quantities of medicines which get consumed fairly rapidly. With the changes to the HAM system we have removed the need for about seventy percent of those medicines. In an attempt to make the healing professions more fun and relevant without requiring crafting we are separating the crafting gameplay from the functional role of Doctors and Combat Medics in a group. Going forward, their healing capability will be based on the use of Abilities granted as they progress through their profession levels. The abilities will be similar to combat profession "special abilities" and have recharge/cool-down timers associated with them. This means that the healing professions will be able to fulfill their role in a group without being tied to the crafting gameplay.
However, we are not eliminating crafting completely from the healing game we are adding crafted "Enhancers".
# Enhancers contain medicines that enable 10-30% more effective healing.
# These Enhancers will be crafted by the Bio-Engineer profession
# Some enhancers will even be available by looting them.
# The Enhancers will have "charges" of medicine that will deplete through use and roughly have enough charges to last about two adventuring play sessions.
# The Enhancers can be used by any profession, however if it's used by a healer it will be more effective.
Medic trees being changed:
Novice Medic Profession Changes
# 1 skill line of Crafting
# 1 skill line of General Healing Support
# 1 skill line of Pre-Doctor abilities
# 1 skill line of Pre-Combat Medic Abilities
Changes to the doctor profession, including pre-req changes
Doctor Profession Changes
Pre-requisites change: from master medic to general healing line and pre-doctor line.
# Point blank range large healing capability
# State cures
# Health buffs
# Combat speed buffs
# Low power mind Action regeneration buffs
# Gains a component-less Resurrection ability with minimal resurrection sickness on the target
Changes to BE profession, not directly-doc related but this is where our crafting is going
Bio-Engineer Profession Changes
Pre-requisite: novice medic crafting line.
# All crafting skill mods and all crafting schematics moved into this tree.
# Creates a series of enhancers to cause a 10-30% boost to healing abilities
# Creates Stim-B's (Stimulant packs) anyone can use small heals that are consumable.
If I missed any major points, please let me know and I will update.
Please, do NOT post any "rumors" or guesses as to what are changing. These are the facts, plain and simple, to avoid the confusion that is found in our forum right now.
-Star Wars characters will now have a single hit point bar, called "Health". When health reaches zero, the player is incapacitated.
-Players no longer have the so-called "drain" stats: Strength, Quickness, and Focus. They will continue to have the recharge stats "Constitution", "Stamina", and "Willpower", however they will be called "health regeneration rate", "action regeneration rate", and "mind regeneration rate".
No more drain stats means no more Str/Quick wound packs, buff packs.
-A character's maximum health will increase with the character's combat level up to 300%. New character health will be 1000, maxed character health will be 3000.
-Short term buffs will modify this health value no more than 20%.
-Long term buffs will modify this health value no more than 10%.
In terms of buffs, we are unsure which category our buff will fall in to.
-The following profession trees will be modified by adding and removing new special abilities to bring them in line with the new system: Marksmen, Medic, Brawler, Scout, Riflemen, Pistoleer, Carbineer, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Commando, Pikeman, Swordsman, Fencer, Jedi, TKA, Doctor, Combat Medic.
Doctor falls in the modified professions, we do not know what is changing with the exception of the removal of the Doctor crafting.
-All of the above professions will be re-balanced so that mastery requires a more equal number of skill points for each of the elite professions. No player will be able to master three elite combat professions.
Based upon this, it would appear that the number of skill points for Doctor will be changed along with the other professions listed.
-Players that have skill boxes in one of these affected professions will be allowed a skill re-spec for their character. This does not include the force sensitive skills. (A re-spec is short for "respecify". It is the chance to choose new skills for your character).
As Doctor is one of the changing professions, we will be given a respec.
-The group UI will be re-worked so that you can see the buffs and de-buffs applied to other group members.
These following changes directly affect us:
Healing/Doctor/CM Changes
-Medical crafting will be handled by the crafting line in Medic as well as Bio-Engineers.
Doctor will no longer be crafting. Crafting will be done via the medic crafting tree, and other crafting to BE. We do not know what is considered "Medic" craftables, nor do we know what will be moved to BE.
-Doctors will have enhanced abilities that are enhanced with the use of consumables called enhancers.
From vortexala - Enhancers are just that, enhancers. They are not required to perform your medical abilities, they simply enhance your 'natural' abilities.
-Enhancers are on a 1000 point scale - the higher the number the better.
-The quality of Enhancer charges will vary per ability. We are aiming for an average of ~20%.
-We are adding craftable stimulant packs (stims) that can be used by anyone. Stims are one shot consumables that require no skill boxes to use.
-The use of the different stims will be determined by the player’s combat level. (i.e., novice players will be able to use the lower level stims while the elite players will be able to use the higher level stims)
-Players will use stims by double clicking them. Each use will consume one charge. Each use has an associated cool-down time.
-Stims can modify your health ~10%. You can’t use your stims to heal someone else.
-Food, spices, and medications will be altered to conform to the new rules.
Buffs/stims/wound packs/etc. are going to be re-adjusted to fit the system.
-We are revamping the skill point costs of elite combat professions to be more even across the board, though they will not be 100% identical.
"Be ready to engage in the new, faster-paced Star Wars Galaxies combat system. As we finalize the various systems, we will continue to bring you updates and ask for your input. Please remember to keep your discussions constructive, we appreciate your feedback.
And again, please remember that this is In-Development. Things will change based on your feedback about the overall fun of the game. Looking forward to your comments!"
Quote from Thunderherat regarding change-over of items.
BBFAnobi wrote:After reading about 10 pages, i want to ask a question i saw on the first page.What happens to all of your modded clothing and seas that we spent hours looking for or spending millions of credits for?
This is a great example of the type of question we'll need to review as a group to get you the best answer. From a general sense, this type of thing will be covered in what we are calling the "Item Conversion" part of the process. Because of SWG's highly customizable crafting system, each of these items exists in the database as a unique item. Different items may be handled in different ways, so rather than post a general answer, we will collect these types of questions, review them with the CU dev team and come back sometime next week with more specific answers.
Quote from Thunderheart regarding buffs/crafting.
DeQuosaek wrote:"Medical crafting will be handled by the crafting line in Medic as well as Bio-Engineers."
and Medic is a requirement of Doctor, I would say he will still be able ot craft.
Yes!
When the team looked at the buff system and the way it currently works, the upside is that many players enjoy the playstyle and the interaction while the downside is that the way buffs currently exist, it is unbalancing the overall game system. The goal was to retain the playstyle for players that enjoyed it because it is a great facet of the way the SWG world works, but we needed to both balance it and make it work so that buffs aren't a barrier to a casual game session.
Buffs will still be part of the game and so will the playstyle. Doctors will need to use the character respec to redefine their skill set, but that playstyle is preserved. Buffing won't be a requirement for casual play, but they will be a good thing to have for long game sessions, PvP, PvE and all sorts of activities, but they wont be a barrier to just jumping in and having a fun game.
UPDATES
From Blair's Blog, Monday
What's going to happen to all the existing items?
* We are going to convert all existing items to what they need to be. In some cases, the functionality of an item no longer exists, so we will adapt it to make it useful under the new system. Stims (Stimulants) fall into this category. Many of you are concerned about weapons. In many cases the speed and damage values of your weapons will change. As part of the conversion, we are maintaining the scale of all the weapons across the servers. This means, that if you had one of the most powerful weapons on the server before CU, you will still have one of the most powerful weapons on the server after CU. Though it is likely the stats will have been altered.
Will we be getting detailed information about the skills before we re-specify how we want our character's stats redistributed (respec)? Or, will we get a trial period (say, a week or so) when we can re-spec at-will to try everything out?
* We realize how important this issue is, so let me say what we hope to do, and add the disclaimer that we haven't done it yet, so it may change. We are currently working toward the idea that you will have time to play with your new skills and have the option of trying out different combinations. We don't know how long this will last, but I like your idea of letting players experiment with different iterations for a week before needing to make a final choice.
New stuff from CU article -
Information regarding healing in general:
The healing professions in Star Wars Galaxies have been primarily crafting professions, linking players to their factories to create massive quantities of medicines which get consumed fairly rapidly. With the changes to the HAM system we have removed the need for about seventy percent of those medicines. In an attempt to make the healing professions more fun and relevant without requiring crafting we are separating the crafting gameplay from the functional role of Doctors and Combat Medics in a group. Going forward, their healing capability will be based on the use of Abilities granted as they progress through their profession levels. The abilities will be similar to combat profession "special abilities" and have recharge/cool-down timers associated with them. This means that the healing professions will be able to fulfill their role in a group without being tied to the crafting gameplay.
However, we are not eliminating crafting completely from the healing game we are adding crafted "Enhancers".
# Enhancers contain medicines that enable 10-30% more effective healing.
# These Enhancers will be crafted by the Bio-Engineer profession
# Some enhancers will even be available by looting them.
# The Enhancers will have "charges" of medicine that will deplete through use and roughly have enough charges to last about two adventuring play sessions.
# The Enhancers can be used by any profession, however if it's used by a healer it will be more effective.
Medic trees being changed:
Novice Medic Profession Changes
# 1 skill line of Crafting
# 1 skill line of General Healing Support
# 1 skill line of Pre-Doctor abilities
# 1 skill line of Pre-Combat Medic Abilities
Changes to the doctor profession, including pre-req changes
Doctor Profession Changes
Pre-requisites change: from master medic to general healing line and pre-doctor line.
# Point blank range large healing capability
# State cures
# Health buffs
# Combat speed buffs
# Low power mind Action regeneration buffs
# Gains a component-less Resurrection ability with minimal resurrection sickness on the target
Changes to BE profession, not directly-doc related but this is where our crafting is going
Bio-Engineer Profession Changes
Pre-requisite: novice medic crafting line.
# All crafting skill mods and all crafting schematics moved into this tree.
# Creates a series of enhancers to cause a 10-30% boost to healing abilities
# Creates Stim-B's (Stimulant packs) anyone can use small heals that are consumable.
If I missed any major points, please let me know and I will update.
Please, do NOT post any "rumors" or guesses as to what are changing. These are the facts, plain and simple, to avoid the confusion that is found in our forum right now.
Message Edited by SantosL on 03-23-2005 04:52 PM
Message Edited by SantosL on 03-23-2005 06:52 PM
Message Edited by SantosL on 03-24-2005 01:23 AM
Message Edited by SantosL on 03-29-2005 01:04 AM
Message Edited by SantosL on 03-29-2005 08:06 PM
Message Edited by SantosL on 03-29-2005 08:07 PM
Message Edited by SantosL on 03-29-2005 08:28 PM
Message Edited by SantosL on 03-29-2005 08:31 PM
MyT_Chicken
Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:00 pm
#2
Blah you beat me to it....but yes that about sums it up. However if the lowers the amount of debate, nerf crying, or anything else will remain a mystery.
Funny thing is, the CU was in it's own right was a information overload.....but sadly it left to much "Wide open"...
And then the devs stopped posting on saturday which made it even worse imo.
Darksfallen
Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:06 pm
#3
I don't get it...
(edit: sorry couldn't resist.)
Message Edited by Darksfallen on 03-23-2005 02:10 PM
MyT_Chicken
Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:16 pm
#4
Darksfallen wrote:
I don't get it...
(edit: sorry couldn't resist.)
Message Edited by Darksfallen on 03-23-2005 02:10 PM
Evil Evil person.
TarMangani
Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:24 pm
#5
Buffs are being reducedto 10% and 20%, so theywill be enhancements, not buffs.
Enhancements will not be needed for casual game play.
As they are not needed for game play as much as they are now, the demand for enhancements will be less than it is now.
Asthe demand for buffs willnot be as much as it is now, the price a doctor can command for both enhancements and enhancement packs will go down.
If the price goes down, then those crafting docs who hold inventory will most likely lose credits as a result.
This has been my position since the post came out, and it's been based on the facts.
IMO, nothing the devs put out will clarify this scenario because it's not based on new information per se, but rather a player's reaction to the necessity of a service he will probably no longer need.
Nothing is cast in stone, and I could very easily be wrong, but this is a very logical conclusion to draw based on current information.
To me the devs still need to release clarification of how they're going to implement these changes, not necessarily whether or not they are going to implement them...
We can only wait of course...
Darksfallen
Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:35 pm
#6
TarMangani wrote:
To me the devs still need to release clarification of how they're going to implement these changes, not necessarily whether or not they are going to implement them...
We can only wait of course...
Have a seat on the waiting couch here... I have popcorn...
SantosL
Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:37 pm
#7
TarMangani wrote:As they are not needed for game play as much as they are now, the demand for enhancements will be less than it is now.
This is not based on fact, this is an assumption that demand for Doctor-based enhancement to stats will go down post-CU. We can not determine this at the current time, because we have no idea what stats we will be even enhancing, much less the total impact our enhancers will have on players.
Message Edited by SantosL on 03-23-2005 05:38 PM
Giftmacher
Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:15 pm
#8
Very nice post, regarding the TH answer to crafting that I've commented on elsewhere, does anyone think it's a bit strange that he answered a crafting question with atalk about buffs? I posted on this in the main thread, because I think it's important that we keep the two queries seperate, and that the Devs understand that our crafting concerns are not linked to buffs.
Anyhoo that aside the other one that I am having trouble deciding the syntax of is:
-Doctors will have enhanced abilities that are enhanced with the use of consumables called enhancers.
Do you think this means:
Doctors can enhance using "buff packs" (refered to as consumables)
or
Doctors have natural enhancing abilities enhanced by consumables (such as food like bivoli perhaps?)
Just a though lol, it is a bit of an over "enhanced" sentance.
Gift.
Giftmacher
Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:19 pm
#9
SantosL wrote:
TarMangani wrote:
As they are not needed for game play as much as they are now, the demand for enhancements will be less than it is now.
This is not based on fact, this is an assumption that demand for Doctor-based enhancement to stats will go down post-CU. We can not determine this at the current time, because we have no idea what stats we will be even enhancing, much less the total impact our enhancers will have on players.
Message Edited by SantosL on 03-23-2005 05:38 PM
I dunno, it sounds like a fair comment to me, buffs are almost obligatory right now, demand can only go down really. Certainly the intent is to make buffs less of a requirement for short bouts of game play, the devs have said as much. I don't think it's an issue though, it was immensely unfair to have players so reliant on buffs, we may not sell as many but I'm sure the economics of that will settle out to a relatively happy medium.
Gift.
Obata
Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:22 pm
#10
-Doctors will have enhanced abilities that are enhanced with the use of consumables called enhancers.
Buff packs are being replaced with "enhancers".
You should read that again. "Enhanced abilities" does not mean just buffing and may not mean buffing at all. The enhancers are packs that will make doctor abilities work better. It's the doctor's abilities that the enhancers enhance.
Marrow1
Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:25 pm
#11
Thunderheart wrote:
speardancer wrote:
Here's another question.. what happens to all the woundpacks people have out there for all the stats that are going away? hopefuly these will all be converted to useful items.... IE health woundpacks.
Yes, these will all be converted into useful items. We will have more information about this for you in the near future.
Marrow1
Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:31 pm
#12
Obata wrote:
-Doctors will have enhanced abilities that are enhanced with the use of consumables called enhancers.
Buff packs are being replaced with "enhancers".
You should read that again. "Enhanced abilities" does not mean just buffing and may not mean buffing at all. The enhancers are packs that will make doctor abilities work better. It's the doctor's abilities that the enhancers enhance.
QEF
A few to many uses of the word Enhance in one sentence if you ask me.
My read on that line is that Docs will be able to heal better orbuffbetter if they are under the influence of an "Enhancer".
For example, a doc could buff for +5% w/o and enhancer but +10% with an enhancer. Likewise for damage healing. Think of it like useing /tendwound with or without bivoli (enhancer).
Giftmacher
Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:52 pm
#13
Ah good I'm glad it's not just me wondering about this.
Gift.
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