Swordsman Archive

Hiya,

as of yesterday TC got updated. Not only with vehicles but also with some general and more specific combat changes.

Before we go on i would like to ask you to keep the following in mind in the next couple of weeks:

Some of the changes, specifically the new HAM system, are being introduced on an experimental basis for now....means: Nothing is definite yet .

Therefore it is important getting as much feedback as possible, and you could do me a big favor if that feedback is actually based on testing / experiencing. Alot of stuff looks sometimes different on paper than it really is. Thank you.

Here are some of the changes (i haven't seen the patch notes yet, so this information is based on things i know from CB and things i have observed):

A new HAM system

By definition it does the following:

The change is that all ham costs for combat moves are no longer damage. With the old system, you would spend 100 points and it would be identical to damage.

With the new system, the HAM points are removed from maximum value, not the current. The ham costs will have SIGNIFICANTLY accelerated regeneration rate. This means that using an action will stil pose a "risk" of being incapacitated, but it's severely diminished.

More concretely:

Let's say you have 1000health points, and you use a special that takes100 health, your maximum will be reduced to 900 and eventually regenerate back to max 1000, while damage is still applied as usual (white bar).

More practically:

...think of bouncing HAM bars.

This is definitely something which in my opinion you can only properly judge by trying it out. So i'm looking forward to your feedback. My first impression is positive: I seem to last longer and let's you use your specials in a more tactical way.

DAMAGE MITIGATION ABILITIES:

All melee/ranged classes get a new ability called damage mitigation.

There are 3 of these abilities for ranged, and 3 for melee. These will limit the range of damage that can be done to you.

Example:

If you are hit with a melee weapon that does 1-100 points of damage and you have melee damage mitigation 3, the damage range we actually use becomes 1-40. This is because melee damage mitigation 3 limits the operative damage range to 40% of the original value.

Level 1 damage mitigation limits damage to 80% of the range

Level 2 damage mitigation limits damage to 60% of the range

Level 3 damage mitigation limits damage to 40% of the range

I haven't really been able to test this yet so i can't confirm the figures, but it's definitely on TC. This is where you can find it in our profession tree:

Int. Sword Defense: Mitigation 1

Expert Sword Defense: Mitigation 2

Master Heavy Swordsman: Mitigation 3

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

The color of our streaks have been changed to a silverish white. It takes a little bit away of our newly obtained Jedi-look, but in my opinion it looks a tiny bit more realistic...if you can talk about realism concerning this point.

It seems to me as if there have also been some "hitting" sounds added (Power Hammer, in the observed case)

Ok...that's it for now...

Once again: please be aware that nothing is definite yet and that there might be changes which eventually won't make it to Live. So please don't consider these changes as The final update.

Please be also aware that this thread is not the "answers to our issues"-thread. As there is a holiday tomorrow, next week might sound ok for an ETA on that.

Happy testing and i'm looking forward to your feedback

Thanks

/bow

Message Edited by Gorecki on 11-26-2003 03:09 PM

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Gorecki wrote:

Level 1 damage mitigation limits damage to 80% of the range

Level 2 damage mitigation limits damage to 60% of the range

Level 3 damage mitigation limits damage to 40% of the range

I haven't really been able to test this yet so i can't confirm the figures, but it's definitely on TC. This is where you can find it in our profession tree:

Int. Sword Defense: Mitigation 1

Expert Sword Defense: Mitigation 2

Master Heavy Swordsman: Mitigation 3

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So this is the amount of damage we absorb? Would that be for all attack weapons melee and ranged?

That could be nice combined with armor.

The new HAM thing will definitely have to be tested to comment. /wonders if he can finally give up novice medic....hhmm

Donte

Happy Turkey Day!

As far as I understand it, damage mitigation gained by our class (and all melee classes) only works against melee damage. Ranged classes get ranged damage mitigation. As far as the percentages, the percentage stands for the reduced damage range. So, with DM I - 80% - you would only have a damage received range of 1-80 on a normal range of 1-100. Man, if this sticks, Master Swordsmen will really rock - only recieving 40% of melee damage!!!

Oh - quick note if you haven't seen the other posts on the TC forum: DM is a passive skill - you do not have to activate it like Center of Being

Also no more 2.5 damage modifier to rifleman, BH using LLC, or commado using FT. So dont expect to get those big hits on them in PvP anymore. This is a great improvement to our tanking ability but drops us back severly in the PvP department.

i just did a 10 minute stint on test center, and from the very little stuff i saw, i liked. i was against the stuff behind our special attacks from the beginning, the silver lines are neat, and not that bad.

i didnt do much stuff, because the character on TC sucks seing that it is a new character (played it once before, and got enough skill points to train in two handed weapons 1, and just trained in that tonight), i just wish i could use my swordsman from wanderhome to test out the stuff, because you cant really tell if anything is good unless you are a master, or at least somewhat good at the skills,ect... that you are trying to test out.

Quick question !

If specials use HAM from our maxium HAM - what happens when we get healed ?

1000 Health - use 2 special for 100 each - down to 800 max health - now we get a heal for 200 health, will we then be back on 1000 ? - or do we have to wait for the regain (new fast regain- but still).

Anybody know ?

Trivan

Sword 1/4/3/3

CH 2/2/0/3

As special movecost isimplemented directly into the HAM max now you can't heal special "damage"

Realy ? - no healing of special moves .... umm not sure I like that - well have to wait until its testet, to see how fast the regain realy are.... better be **edit** fast, or this will bring us down

Trivan

Yeah, the replacement of damage multiplier by increased chance to hit will mean no more 10k hits on silly imperial officers who think it's a good idea to lay on the ground while a 7ft wookiee runs towards them with a BFH. With Master, my "to hit" wasn't that bad and now that it is going to take me longer to kill them, my inability to use armor is really going to require me to re-evaluate my template.

As for the specials lowering my HAM vs. causing damage. No matter how fast it regenerates, I will not be able to spam specials unless I am buffed. My powerhammer costs 115 health a special. I can swing it probably every 2.5 seconds. I would usually pop a stim-b every 3 hits and keep on swinging. Now, with each swing effectively lowering my HAM which can't be healed but has to regenerate, my 1100 health is now 755 health after 3 swings. If there are multiple mobs, then I am going to die quickly either from suiciding my HAMs, or being in the fight too long because I am doing base damage. I am not going to jump to any conclusions as all of this is still in test, and I am going by what I read on the boards vs. personal experience.

Gorecki, please find out what the regeneration rate is, and find out if our special costs are going to be improved. I can adapt my playstyle, I just need to know the guidelines.

...the reg. speed seems to be special-dependant...all in all i perceive it as rather fast though.

As i said: it's something you need to experience in order to really judge it. When i saw it on "paper" first i was curious but also a bit sceptic. Experiencing it leaves a much better impression. The possible aim of making us better "tankers" with these 2 changes, also against higher level creatures / npc's, seeems to me close at reach.

...just don't forget: for now it's an experiment....and in case it would make it to live it will probably also need some fine-tuning first...hopefullybased onalot of feedback.

You might want to considerwaiting awhile with your template re-evaluation and see about the things to come...

Have a nice weekend

/bow

Thanks Gorecki!

If I had a few more hours in the day I would try to build up another swordsman on TC. Hopefully they will give us the character copy option soon and I can put a duplicate of my Wookiee over there to try some of this stuff out (although by the time I can do it, there won't be anything left to test )

I won't make any changes based on the new stuff until I can experience it myself. I finally feel like I can hold my own against any combat class out there, and I would hate to lose that. I guess I am just paranoid after seeing some of the other classes get "balanced"