Pistoleer Archive

What if they (the devs) actually make a retroactive patch at the combat rebalance making all DE-10's ap2 but didn’t put them in that way to unbalance the game in its current state for some reason? The speed on those things (DE-10's) are about 4.2 base without krayt tissue, and I cant possibly see our profession firing any slower than it does presently, so I have reasoned out a few potential possibilities which may be in store with us and I will propose some explanations why my speculations may be viable. Whether or not we get speed changes, the DE-10 is still a pathetically slow gun in comparison to every single existing craftable pistol OTHER than the DE-10, because they can not (most likely) and will not (most likely) change every single weapon on every server to fall in line with the rebalance, they are going to have to design the rebalance around existing weapons, because it is FAR easier than having to completely screw up the trade economies on every single server and then deal with THAT. Because of this, when looking at the stats of my 2 neat new DE-10's with +96 -0.627 krayt tissue, i realized that the hams were double the republic, the range mods suck like on a republic, and the minimum damage is also roughly double that of a republic, while the max is only marginally higher, and its incredibly slow, yet these tradeoffs do not balance the minimum damage increase, and i concluded that something is probably missing; If this gun had AP2, it would be a DECENT maybe even great pve gun nut not overpowered, because of its astronomical (in comparison to that of every other existing pistol) HAM costs slow speeds, and mediocre range. This would also coincidentally give master pistoleers the ability to participate at an adequate level at the hard new dungeons with everybody else( corvette, DW bunker, and Geo cave) without having to overpower those who were not at master level and should not be in those places expecting to get far with close-range weapons. I am saying that retroactively (existing and future) patching the DE-10 up to medium armor as a master level "gift" or "tool" so to speak when the combat rebalance goes live may actually still be a possibility.

I have heard no rumors or suggestions to this subject, and I think it has some feasible logic behind it, but of course, we will never know until the combat rebalance is finally rolled out... Just my $0.02 in the morning after a sleepless night which was largely spent dealing with DE-10's.

so to recap this:

im suggesting 3 possibilities of what the combat rebalance may bring to us based on the mere stats of the DE-10 alone

1) we get some insane speed mods, but the DE-10 will probably remain as an utterly slow pistol

2) we don’t get insane speed mods but we still get a nifty new pistol with comparable max damage to a RB, but with double the hams and but 2.x+ the minimum damage which would help with mitigation issues in pvp (although we have no idea how that will change) and the DE-10 is STILL an incredibly slow pistol

3) The DE-10 IS considered to be a pathetically slow pistol, but it gets justified with a retroactive patch making all currently existing and future DE-10's MEDIUM ap (ap2), and "something only the most skilled (master) pistoleers can use" and we ALSO finally get our calling in PVE to some extent at a reasonable cost which would be double the ham, and basically half the speed our current pistols are, which seems like a relatively fair trade to me.

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I’m going to recap my ideas/reasoning/assumptions/dreams/hopes/wishes/speculation again:

assuming the DE-10 is a fast pistol after the combat rebalance, all pistols from before the rebalance are going to become extremely valuable (ALL PISTOLS EXCEPT DE-10). Because EVERY SINGLE other pistol currently available is faster, actually almost twice as fast, I see this as being a game-breaking problem because it would completely ruin the economy on every server, and thus a highly unlikely case.

If there is a retroactive ap2 damage upgrade to the DE-10 it will be balanced and justified by it’s incredibly high ham costs and slow speeds when compared to other pistols. To me, double the ham, and half the speed seem like an obvious and logical way to counterbalance adding the additional layer of armor piercing. What does this mean? If this actually happens, we finally get the ability to keep up with the other professions in terms of raw actual damage done on a given attack at the master level (high level PVE and PVP).

I'm now going to provide an explanation as to why it is easy to make a retroactive change like making all DE-10's become ap2 at a server reset:

They did it months ago when they nerfed/redesigned the creature handler profession. It used to be that if you were even just a novice ch, as long as a pet was tamed already, you could control it (or multiple ones) because creature levels only pertained to the level of difficulty for taming it in regards to one's progression through the skill tree, and what one was and wasn’t able to tame at all at specific levels. When this was changed to the first iteration of how the CH profession is now, with creatures having levels at which specific skills were needed to have creatures "out", Gurrecks were also nerfed down from medium armor (ar2) to light armor (ar1). Later on this followed with a similar nerf to arachne webmasters which for some reason had been left out. (this is the best recollection i have, this nerf was last summer in like augest or something) there were no problems at all with the nerfing of gurrecks down to armor 1 that i can remember. It would potentially be a similar transition, and as to the fact that changes like this have previously been made, the coding would probably be very similar and easy to do. I don’t see any game breaking repercussions from such a change to the DE-10, because frankly its costs are all double and it seems like something is missing it has a very similar damage "band" to the geonosian pistol, with costs comparable to he republic, and energy is our standard energy type(we have more energy weapons than any other profession as far as i can think, yet are the only profession that has an energy weapon that is not ap2 (laser carbine, laser rifle). Something HAS to be missing from this gun.

ALSO, because 2 components from an extremely difficult dungeon (death watch bunker)are needed to make this pistol, it will remain as a relatively rare pistol, even among the master pistoleers who all cert for it. Additonally, this may be used to keep people intersted in the deathwatch bunker regardless of it's absurd difficulty, but as to whatever reason that would be, i have absolutely no idea.

AGAIN This is ENTIRELY SPECULATION ON MY PART, just something that seemed easy to implement and a logical change in my mind.

We will not know anything about the combat rebalance at all until it goes on the test center, so we can not argue/refute definite points, but only the logic and possibilities of my speculation and reasoning. If you wish to be immature and flame me, then go ahead and waste your time. I put a lot of effort into this post, and I hope you guys (and girls) all read it from a serious perspective. Please post some well thought of feedback, as well as your own critiques of my analysis. I would hate to see this thread turn into a spam waterfall of posts like "yeah man thats smart" or "stealth is a fool" or "that would be great". Try to post something well thought out and constructive so we can host a legitimate discussion.

I only wish you guys enjoyed pistoleer as much as I do, both of alts are master or will be master pistoleers, and my primary mastered pistoleer 3 times. I wouldn’t have it any other way. My personal slogan for pistoleer as it is now, is "Sure i cant kill diddly squat, but at least i make it look cool" last augest it used to be "haha i KD'ed and killed 10 of you in one shot" we’ve gone along way down, but things recently are starting to look very very good, and I think we are actually going to get what we want/need. Of course I'm also going to call out Randonb in this, cuz hes been awesome through helping me figure this stuff out with the DE-10 barrel problems, and he is largely responsible for getting our profession so far back from where it was, to the point that we are now nearly sitting on the edge of rebirth in a cocoon, about to re-emerge back into the community as a respectable, viable, working, profession, where we can wear our titles proudly and not be laughed at and excluded from groups.. Thank you.

Lets let the discussion begin!!!!

BTW, it took me 3 hours to write this, so you guys better respect it.

Stealth Mcownzjoo of the Valcyn Server
Master Pistoleer since augest

this is the link to my thread in the weaponsmith forum about the DE-10 Barrel problems/bugs:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=weaponsmith&message.id=48526

• Pistoleer: fast and light. dealing low damage per blow but very quickly. Is the bridge between melee and ranged combat, defensive at close range.


• Carbineer: machine gunner, deals moderate damage to many enemies at speed comparible to pistoleer. Huge potential of state effects and damage. a profession of pure offense


• Rifleman: sniper. slow firing, insanely accurate, high levels of armour piercing and damage. ability to fire concealed shots and use cover effectively, defensive at long range.


• Commando: heavy weapons specialist, high damage mainly specialised for taking down heavy armour,littleanti-infantry offense.


• BH: jack of all trades yet master of combat. uses many weapons with master-like profiency. A blend of pistoleer and carbineer with some unique bounty hunter skills thrown in. a profession of pure offense with no defensive capabilities other than killing his opponent first

With the exception of pistoleer, none of the above professions, the marksmen should expect to last long within melee range.

• TKA: fast and deadly. in combat the TKA is pretty basic, no special damage types or superior armour piercing but gains special abilities through meditation.


• Fencer: the defence expert. little on attack, low damage and little in the way of armour piercing weapons but in melee range he should last long enough to dispatch his target in the end.


• Swordsman: damage in moderation. swordsman carries many armour piercing weapons and deals moderate to high damage at moderate to high speed.


• Pikeman: the tank. master of blocks and counters the pikeman makes a great front line obstacle for the enemies of his teammates allowing for the would-be defenceless marksmen to better carry out their roles.

These interpretations are taken slightly from what the devs originally said about the professions but mostly from logical thought. Those who wish to question these interpretations of the combat roles is free to do so, but from a logical standpoint these interpretations are what I and many others would expect from a profession of that name. And if the combat balance puts everyone back to a specialised role where no two combat professions of the same type are stepping on each others toes, etc rifleman outmatching pistoleer for speed and TKA out-tanking a pikeman.

I have made perhaps a few too many dfiferent points in this post but I feel this may be the thread for insightful and constructive combat balance effect discussion. Any non-pistoleers trolling the forum please refrain from flaming based on my interpretation of your profession's name and first glance abilities, I have not mastered all combat professions yet and I already know that most of them don't even attempt to follow what the name suggests.

Murton
Genocide
Eclipse Server
Pistoleer of debate