Fencer Archive
Thread: Anatomy of a SWG Melee Weapon
Anatomy of a SWG Melee Weapon, Part X: Balance through Accuracy and Defense
Let’s first look at the concept of modifying accuracy. If we use the top weapon as the base, then the lower weapons should have far better accuracy. There is an inherent logistical problem that caps off how effective this would be. After a certain point, additional accuracy does not help as you are already hitting just about everything 100% of the time. Therefore bestowing accuracy beyond this point is just as moot as having a speed modifier that takes a weapon beyond the 1.0 speed cap. Unfortunately, the most controllable method of using accuracy as a balancing factor would be as a penalizing manner. This would produce the following results:
1. One-handed weapons = Base Accuracy
2. "Unarmed" weapons = 60% of Base Accuracy
3. Two-handed weapons = 36% of Base Accuracy
4. Polearm weapons = 35% of Base Accuracy
This change in relative accuracy could be relayed entirely by the weapon, entirely by the wielder, or shared across the two. Currently, the accuracy for the professions at Mastery is +110 for all but "Unarmed", which is +155. Therefore, the changes would have to be reflected in the accuracy modifiers of the weapons themselves. Take at look at the relative accuracies of these weapons when you get the chance. Do they "accurately" (pun intended) reflect the numbers above?
Now let’s look at the option of modifying defense. Just like with accuracy, if we base this modification on the top weapon then lower weapons will get bonuses, and if based off the bottom weapons the top weapons would get penalties. Melee professions are already smacked around enough as it is, so we wouldn’t want to reduce defense for any of the melee professions. Let’s therefore look into enhancing the defenses for the weaker weapons. Basically, the less damage a weapon does the longer its wielder will be subject to an opponent’s damage and would therefore require proportionately higher defenses to compensate. Here is what the spread would look like if this was the method used to equalize the weapons:
1. Polearm weapons = 100% of Base Defense
2. Two-handed weapons = 103 % of Base Defense
3. "Unarmed" weapons = 173% of Base Defense
4. One-handed weapons = 288% of Base Defense
This defensive boost could be in the form of the ability to take damage less often, to take less damage when struck, or some combination of the two. Since melee weapons do not (apparently) bestow different defensive values at this current time, these defenses would have to manifest themselves in the form of the wielder’s skills. There does currently appear to be a difference in the defensive skills between the wielders of these weapon categories, but they certainly do not reflect the relative values indicated above. Perhaps instead of just adjusting accuracy or just defense to equalize these weapons, it might be better to apply some of both.
Anatomy of a SWG Melee Weapon, Part XI: Conclusions
It’s not my place to draw conclusions here, but yours. When selecting a new weapon keep what we have discovered and discussed in mind. It is my hope that it will assist you in the weapon that is "best" for you.
Something else I hope this will do is to allow for the four melee professions to be able to appreciate the situations of their fellow melee professions, both good and bad. Perhaps this might also help us understand why one profession might be experiencing variations to accuracy, speed, defenses, and HAM costs that are different than the others. It just might be that the developers are also looking at these kinds of numbers and discovering what needs to be done to provide a little better balance.
I hope you have enjoyed this little read. I found it enlightening and discovered some things that I wasn’t aware of as I pursued it. Maybe you did too. If you decide to reply to this thread, please keep in mind that this was just an examination of some data, with the intent of shedding some light on a few of these elements. I’m not trying to "prove" anything to anyone… except perhaps myself. 
dude, i'm speechless, what you figured will help alot in chooseing my next wepon.
... very great post... thx for the hard work
Ah I say that the virbro blade is the best. HAM cost per second is the key. I just go for the lowest mind HAM possible, and then run with it. Medics can heal the rest.
Also you did not include the fact that there are Vibromotor damage enhancer components (but not components for other types of weapons). This makes Vibro blades pretty darn good again once sliced for damage like mine is. I think you should add in the weapon component enhancements to your survey of weapons to help people decide, they really make a difference.
Vibro blades are the best we got IMO. They ain't great, but its all we got.
But in general I agree, and this its an awesome piece of work!
excellent work!
Although the weapon I use the most in PvE and PvP are my pets 
I grouped with a Master Commando last night for some Imp bashing in Bestine, he was amazing to watch I could never hope to even approach 10% of the damage he was inflicting. I hope they get around to fixing us soon, I'd hate to see PvP become just BH's and Commandos (with pets!).
Nice work. One comment:
Averaging the armor piercing values doesn't really work. You do have to consider different cases. The analysis you give, for example, would be completely off if a given weapon was very good at chewing up low-armored or high-armored foes but was very bad at the other end of things. Many people will hunt almost exclusively foes with a given armor rating. Furthermore, the ability to switch weapons means that a class is perhaps best judged by looking at by considering it's best weapon for each individual armor rating. I'm not sure how much that will change your results.
Really you should consider bifurcating at that point and creating tables that account for each armor value. More data to work out, but I think it gives a better (if not more complicated) picture of things.
Oh, and I sent you an email on Test Center. You were looking for some weaponry I hear? Right now I'm not a master weaponsmith, although I will hopefully be there in a few days (if TC can stay up long enough), but actually TC is lacking in smiths and I'm probably as good as any other atm (and I specialize in melee weaponry). We just got the materials for advanced cores. If you send me a holler I'll see what I can set you up with. If yer not planning on using TC though, it might also be nice to know so I don't hold onto any particularly nice gaderiffi's I manage to come up with.
--- Flynn McDonnell
I did consider taking into account every possible case that someone might get themselves into, and even began making tables along those lines. However, for every new case I thought up, several sub-cases revealed themselves. Once I realized that I was going to end up with literally hundereds of tables, and that not even the "nerdiest" of us would read through them all I decided I had to draw the linesomewhere and stick to it. A big part of my goal with this was to demonstrate how to go about comparing weapons, not to compare every single one to every single situation.
You are correct that some people will narrow their enjoyment of the game down to a few selecttypes of opponents or situations and will be able to set up a weapon that exploits a single weakness. This information will still work for them. All they would have to do is not use the AP/AR averaging, but rather just the isolated values relative to their narrow focus. I tried to take into consdieration that for every person that enjoys limiting their experiences in the game there is at least one more that want to see and experience it all. There are also those that might not have the cash available to buy every single weapon for each situation and want to make a choice on what will perform the best across a wide variety of situations.
Someone mentioned that what they like is the least HAM cost per second. In your situation that might be the "best." As I stated in my thesis, the term "best" here needs to be determined by the indivdual, so what works for one person may or may not work for another's point of view. For me, I do care about HAM cost per second, but I also look at total HAM cost per opponent. If I have two weapons to choose from and one does 5 HAM per second and the other does 10 HAM per second but can kill my opponent in 1/4th the time then I will have used less total HAM on that opponent, and that opponent will have less time to hurt me which also saves HAM. So it all depends on what you value the most. For me, I want to walk away from a fight with the most HAM I can.
Some also mentioned that I did not include special componenets for the Vibroblade. I didn't purposefully exclude them either. I simply asked the Master Weaponsmith to provide what he would provide anyone that asked for the "best" of a particular weapon. So maybe the Vibroblades I mentioned included them, and perhaps they didn't. Personally I don't really know, I guess I should ask him. I also did not include weapon powerups because they could be used for any melee weapon, are only a temporary boost, and aren't truely part of the weapon itself. However, used cleverly powerups can be very handy. Again, if you wanted to compare weapons with any form of "turbo-charging" just include the new stats and work through the same process to see how it compares.
I'm glad you guys are actually reading this. I wasn't sure if anyone would. It took me over a week to put it all together, and several times during the process I ran into the bathroom, looked into the mirror, pointed at my reflected, and said "Nerd!" LOL. So it's nice to know people are findingvalue in this, if even just to bring up polite conversation.
Raph,
I cannot tell you how much your time and efforts are appreciated. We are so fortuneate to have you as our correspondent. I truly believe you will be the one to make this profession what it is meant to be.
Seena