Game Guides Archive
Thread: CU Game Mechanics [A Guide For Playing Post-CU For Those Who Weren't on Test Center]
The combat queue has been eliminated and now all combat actions are controlled by the queue. Yes the icons are ugly, but you end up getting used to them. When you use one of your attacks, you will see your toolbar icons get grayed out in a sort of a visual cooldown timer effect. The timer on each toolbar icon represents the time until you can next perform that action.
You now have one main "hit point" pool, and 2 other pools that get drained as you perform actions. Your health bar starts at 1000 for a level 1 character, and grows up to 3000 for a higher level character (not sure on what level is needed to reach this). Obviously, damage from opponents will drain this pool and when it gets to zero you're incapacitated.
Message Edited by KyridIce on 04-28-2005 04:21 AM
Message Edited by KyridIce on 04-28-2005 04:22 AM
Message Edited by KyridIce on 04-28-2005 04:28 AM
4. Gaining XP and Grouping
If you get in a group, the group's level is determined by the highest level member in the group. Lets say you are level 10 and get in a level 20 group for example. Now, those level 10 nunas you were killing before will only give you 1 xp per kill, because the group level is much higher than the nuna's level, even though you are still personally the same level as the nuna. Does this make sense? Did you magically get stronger, just by grouping up? The answer is yes, you sure did, the nuna that was doing 50 damage per hit to you before will now only hit for about 10 per hit. So, just by grouping up, you get better defense due to the damage multiplier effect...in fact, you'd probably be able to go tank a level 20 shaupaut just as effectively as you were tanking the level 10 nunas before you grouped up.
So what do you kill to earn xp now? I'll examine a couple of options:
**Note that you get full xp per kill even if you only hit the creature once.**
a) You - lvl 10, Group - lvl 20, opponent - lvl 10, no help from group members. Here you are basically trying to mimic a solo group. You can kill the opponent fairly fast, but you only get 1xp per kill.
b) You - lvl 10, Ungrouped, opponent - lvl 10. Here you are soloing creatures of your level for xp. Each fight might take a while, and you must be careful to only fight one opponent at a time. XP is a nice 500 weapons, 50 combat.
c) You - lvl 10, Group - lvl 10, opponent - lvl 10, you are the strongest in the group and are fighting as a group. Each fight goes faster due to more attackers and you still get the 500 xp. Hence your xp gain rate has improved.
c) You - lvl 10, Group - lvl 20, opponent - lvl 20, no help from group members. You will probably not be able to damage the creature fast enough to counteract its health regeneration. If you DO get the kill, you will get about 550 weapons, 55 combat xp. Not noticeably different than when you were soloing lvl 10 creatures.
d) You - lvl 10, Group - lvl 20, opponent - lvl 20, fighting as a group. The kills come in faster now and you still get your 550 xp per kill.
e) You - lvl 10, Group - lvl 20, opponent - lvl 22, fighting as a group. You should be able to kill stuff a few levels higher than the group level (depending on the size of the group) at a fairly quick pace. If you're in a big group, these won't take much longer to kill than the opponents in the previous example. You get, lets say, 625 weapons xp and 62 combat xp per kill.
I believe that for big groups, option (e) is best, and for smaller groups, you'll need to stick with option (d). This is purely an observation on what feels like the optimal xp over time rate. A closer look at the numbers might prove otherwise.
Now, I quoted a ton of xp numbers there, where did they come from? Well, they aren't actual numbers taken from the game, instead they are numbers I made up on what I believe are the three influencing factors on xp payout. (Here's where things stray from the realm of statistics... Sorry, If I had numbers to back my theories up, I would be able to present the following with more conviction. As it stands, I could very well be wrong.)
Three things that determine xp payout:
- your level
- difference between group level and opponent's level
- opponent's level
Your level determines the cap of xp you can get per kill. The higher your personal level, the more xp you get when you fight white cons, whether solo or as part of a group.
The difference between your group's level and the opponent's level will scale the amount of xp you get per kill, using your personal cap as a reference point. You get more xp for fighting opponents above your group level, and fewer for fighting below your level. When fighting above your level, the difference isn't that huge, maybe 5-10% more xp per level difference. But, fighting below your level, the difference is unfortunately much more noticeable, bottoming out at 1xp per kill when you start fighting stuff a few (5 or so) levels weaker than you.
Finally, I may be mistaken, but I believe that the opponents level has a slight influence on the xp payout. I am pretty sure that if you are level 10, in a level 20 group, fighting level 20 opponents, you get less xp than if you were level 10 in a level 30 group fighting level 30 opponents. The effect this has on xp payout is, I think, quite small.
How does Medical xp fit into all of this? Medical xp has now been tied completely into the combat system (no more leveling medic afk using tumblers). You get your xp after each kill, in the same way as you would get weapons/combat xp. Like with weapons xp, you get the full xp per kill even if you only heal an attacker once during the fight. The amount of medical xp you would get in this case is the same amount of weapons xp you would have gotten if you were fighting instead of healing. If you do both fighting and healing, your xp cap will be divided among both weapons xp and medical xp, depending on which was used more. For example, if your cap was 1000 xp per kill, and during the course of the battle, you fought as much as you healed, you'd get 500 medical xp, 500 weapons xp, and 50 combat xp. If you only heal, you get full medical xp, if you only fight, you get full weapons/combat xp.
Ok, that was long, but it covers the important CU changes. Hope those of you who haven't been to Test Center can benefit from reading this.
-Atori
Message Edited by KyridIce on 04-28-2005 04:25 AM
KyridIce wrote:
KyridIce wrote:
KyridIce wrote:
KyridIce wrote:
Hello,
I was get quite a bit oftesting done as Atori, member of Naritus's TRUST guild on Test Center during the beta process, and I would like to share some of the basics of how the game works now. This guide is intended for those whohaven't been to test centerand are wondering how to get started in the new combat system. It covers the new toolbar icons, the new HAM bars, the new con system, and the benefits of grouping.
Here we go, and just a lil warning, its long
Already posted this to the jedi forums, but here goes again:
Ok... call me out of line on this one if you want seeing as how I won't even be a Jedi until next week (provided I can actually complete my final village quest), but....
Unless you're finished with your template, play your alt for a while until this all gets sorted out. This especially applies to lower-level padawan.
Personally, even after I unlock, I doubt I'll even log in my padawan until some of these issues are resolved.