Rifleman Archive

Just for emphasis, also another confirmation post

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InfluenzaSWTA wrote:

A quick summary of some random things that Devs stated at Fan Fest.

The Lead Programmer, Andy Sommers, gave a really nice forum on technical questions about the game engine. Each server has 35 computers dedicated to it. These boxes are split up between planets based on how many people are on each planet (for example, Andy used Tatooine as an example, which used 10 computers at launch). Each planet is split up into a number of zones based on how many computers are allocated to it, and each computer is responsible for controlling one zone. Each computer is designed to track only 125 players. This is why we get problems with large gatherings of people. Also, each computer runs Red Hat Linux version 7 point something, though they'll be upgrading soon to 8. Jump to lightspeed will add 10 computers to each server, but they'll only be for the 10 space sectors.

The Devs have slightly tweaked how HAM is going to work in the combat revamp. It's not what's previously been discussed, with special moves taking away from your max HAM values instead of damaging you. Instead, your Health, Action, and Mind pools will be mirrored to create three more pools. These pools do not take damage; instead, when you use special attacks, you will draw points from these pools instead of your primaries. When you run out of an "action" pool (not Action), you aren't incapped, you just can't use any more special moves. I like this a lot.

Also with the revamp comes the REMOVAL of pool-specific special attacks. Instead, things will work like this. Rifleman will still have a Head Shot, but the design of the skill will revolve around this scenario: when you use Head Shot, you are literally aiming for the target's head. This gives you a higher than normal chance of hitting their head and thus their mind pool, but also lowers your overall accuracy because it's a lot harder to specifically hit someone's head as opposed to hitting them at all. Also, you'll have a slightly higher chance of hitting their Body than their Legs, resulting in more Health damage than Action. So pool-specific shots will likely see a drop in accuracy and some amount of spread across pools. More good stuff.

Dave also had a cool scenario involving a Rifleman having to set up his position before becoming extremely powerful. The scenario included sending in a Melee class to engage and distract the enemy while the Rifleman is able to pick them off from afar. He also mentioned slowing Rifleman down when they have large guns out, making it possible for Melee to close quicker. I assume this will go for other classes as well, but he used Rifleman as an example because there were a number of rather... aggressive people at the Combat forum who clearly dislike the Rifleman class.

All the forumulas for accuracy, speed, and def ense will change with the combat rebalance. I quote: "Slow guns will stay slow, fast guns will stay fast." I take this to mean no more 7.0 speed rifles hitting the speed cap.

The main combat developer, Dave White, is also very much into designing lots of tactical options into combat. His one example involved knockdowns... he'd like to see a "get up instantly" move that you can use when knocked down that uses some of your action points to get back up immediately. His overall vision is having players choose to either go all out and use all their action points to kill the other person quickly, or save a few in reserve in case they have to bust out a defensive special to get out of a sticky situation.

Every Friday, all the programmers take the first four hours of their day and spend it playing the game themselves. While they play, they take note of little things that bother them that can be fixed in a short period of time, and spend the next four hours fixing those issues. This policy was recently put into effect, and resulted in some of the little changes we recently saw to group mission waypoints and group member directional arrows.

There was a surprising amount of Combat Medic support from the Devs throughout the weekend. They repeatedly stated that the "problems" with Combat Medics are merely symptoms of a poor combat system in the first place. They stood their ground against the CM haters (which somehow found their way to every discussion, from the Hybrids to General Discussion to Medical Professions). They even went so far as to adamantly tell whiners that they needed better tactics. Interesting indeed.

That's all I can remember for now.

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Waste93 wrote:

I want to have fun. I want to explore. I want to do quests that require more than repeatedly attacking the same kind of targets.

One of the best quests I've seen so far was part of Nyms. Forgot the name of it. But you go in to find a droid part. At the end you have to answer some riddles to gain entry to an area. It was great.

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I tend to forget about that Nym quest. I got so excited when I got to that little droid. It made me so happy. Why have the ability to put that in-game and use it so infrequently?

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XaverriJade7 wrote:

I tend to forget about that Nym quest. I got so excited when I got to that little droid. It made me so happy. Why have the ability to put that in-game and use it so infrequently?

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I know. It seems everything is getting geared towards only high end players and uber loot. But not about actually having fun. But about bragging rights. Who has the best "uber" loot weapon with Mind fire DoTs are some other such thing.

The other fun one for me was part of the Warren. I didn't talk to everyone so had to figure out what I needed to do prior to using the reactor cores. I had to figure out about he failsafes/overloads or whatever they were called that I had to shut off first. I spent about an hour wandering around before I figured it out. It was great.

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Waste93 wrote:

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XaverriJade7 wrote:

I tend to forget about that Nym quest. I got so excited when I got to that little droid. It made me so happy. Why have the ability to put that in-game and use it so infrequently?

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I know. It seems everything is getting geared towards only high end players and uber loot. But not about actually having fun. But about bragging rights. Who has the best "uber" loot weapon with Mind fire DoTs are some other such thing.

The other fun one for me was part of the Warren. I didn't talk to everyone so had to figure out what I needed to do prior to using the reactor cores. I had to figure out about he failsafes/overloads or whatever they were called that I had to shut off first. I spent about an hour wandering around before I figured it out. It was great.

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Me and my 2 friends who went to the Warren only finished the first part (thanks for reminding me- I forgot about needing to finish part 2 ) but it took a loooooong time and we even had a guide (well, one of us did). Still, we just ended up running around and pulling switches and trying everything we could to solve the puzzles. Lots of fun

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XaverriJade7 wrote:

Me and my 2 friends who went to the Warren only finished the first part (thanks for reminding me- I forgot about needing to finish part 2 ) but it took a loooooong time and we even had a guide (well, one of us did). Still, we just ended up running around and pulling switches and trying everything we could to solve the puzzles. Lots of fun

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You should go finish it. There is a minor puzzle. Not much. But a little one that makes it a bit enjoyable.

First couple times I went thru there I wasn't even a Master Riflemen yet. Nor were there buffs. And being a Wookiee I couldn't even wear armor.

Once Wookiee armor came out it was the first thing I did. I was the only one in there.

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SpunkyKuma wrote:
As far as I have heard and read, all combat professions are getting hit in the nuts with the bat- in a good way more or less.

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"You will not ever be able to kill yourself"

Here's why: There will now be ability point pools available for Health Action and Mind. These pools are constrained by the maximum size of the corresponding HAM pool (including wounds/buffs) but do not take damage from incoming attacks.Instead, points are only drainable from these pools through the use of specials.

Ability point pools will drain much faster (i.e. costs of specials increased) but will regen much faster as well. The same secondary stats will affect ability pool drain/regen as affect the HAM drain/regen. Ability point pools can not be used to incap/kill a player.

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DomMantell wrote:

"You will not ever be able to kill yourself"

Here's why: There will now be ability point pools available for Health Action and Mind. These pools are constrained by the maximum size of the corresponding HAM pool (including wounds/buffs) but do not take damage from incoming attacks.Instead, points are only drainable from these pools through the use of specials.

Ability point pools will drain much faster (i.e. costs of specials increased) but will regen much faster as well. The same secondary stats will affect ability pool drain/regen as affect the HAM drain/regen. Ability point pools can not be used to incap/kill a player.

This part concerns me the most.

Are the new HAM pools going to be affected by secondary stats, focus/willpower, etc.?

They said yes

If the drain on your new HAM pools aren't affected by secondary stats then the devs will have broken the economy in so many different ways (not to mention they will also negate musician buffs). Why bother with canape or ahrisa if they won't alter the mind costs? Why bother having docs to buff secondary stats?

Not a problem because of above

If the new HAM bars are affected by secondary stats just what exactly have they changed? We'll still have the ability to spam specials once we're sufficiently buffed

Would appear nothing

Have the devs actually thought this through?

Just look at the "Rifleman will have to set up a position" Statement, answers your question.

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Bennifer wrote:

Rifleman have nothing to complain about, you do the most damage and are more accurate then any other class not to mention faster, you have been for the past months, so be silent and move aside, you have just been Pwned by the Devs

You had it comming

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ToDor wrote:

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Bennifer wrote:

Rifleman have nothing to complain about, you do the most damage and are more accurate then any other class not to mention faster, you have been for the past months, so be silent and move aside, you have just been Pwned by the Devs

You had it comming

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No this is totally untrue....I a 1040 bh with 0012 pistoleer killed a master rifleman with a 700+dmg laser rifle and 600+dmg t21...... even the jawa did no kill me and all i used was eyeshot and a 1.5spd scatter with 150 dmg lol...so no they dont do the most dmg....composite and most armor is light and lasr rifle is medium so that should give some extra dmg and i only had ranged mitigation 1 and not much ranged defence...... so tbh you are 99.9% wrogn about that....

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