Teras Kasi Archive

Ok, Here are the list of Issues im thinking of going with this week.

1. Knockdown Nerf
2. Are defensive skills working?
3. /stick command
4. Meditation branch
5. Specials

These topics can change with enough voices, but these seem to be the major ones right now.

For each of these, Id like you to answer the following questions..

* Whats wrong?
* How can it be fixed?

Remember, lets be as constructive as possible. I know it's been a rough few days, but lets try to calm down and make things right.



Bane Wulf
Chilastra
Teras Kasi Correspondent



------------------------------------2 cents---------------------------------


1) simple...please return the HAM costs back to pre nerf.....no one really complained about it b4 so y change it now?


2) i feel like this is an in house dev issue to be tested....i think its workig fine b/c i havent noticed my self dying any more ofteh than b4....the dif is that i just cant defend myself anymore

3) no comment

4)ways to tweak the meditation branch.....this actually may kill 2 birds with one stone with is #5 specials....


why not include HAM% deductions in the meditation tree for specials that are strung together?

when used by them selves the HAM is high...with meditation and stringing...the HAMs go down...this will: 1- create an incentive to go up the meditation tree...2)reduce spamming of specials like KD, 3) it may even make playing more fun.....

something inline with success rate, effective execution, and finess - you perform the style well then you get a bonus ie: additional status effects....


also... burst lunge to address the range issue....at lease give us a chance to catch the kiter...this can also be a gradual skill whose duration or length gets longer as you go up the tree....PVP players will love this tree then...promise







/2cents

Before even begining, I wish to say thank you to Thunderwulf for being our correspondent. I speak for all the TKA when I say that we all believe you are here for the greater good of our class.

1. knockdown nerf

Obviously this is a problem, we should not recieve an average of 600 or so HAM damage for the exact same attack that many other classes have. This was supposed to be OUR special attack. Too many other professions have this. Giving it to a few of them (low blow for example) makes perfect sense and is fine. But not EVERY marksman out there should have this, as is now the case where all except rifleman seem to use knockdown. If the devs truly want to talk about "balance" than a pistol whip attack (which consists of a pistoleer turning the gun around and hitting his oponent with the butt of the weapon) should be considered a "melee attack", since that is exactly what it is. It should not be ranged at all, they should have the same range requirments that we have for this, and similar attacks. They would then also be subject to our speed, not that of the weapon they are holding. Swinging the butt of a gun is slightly different than aiming it and firing it, they should be restricted to a melee speed when performing this. This would solve tons of problems where a pistoleer is able to out-knockdown a TKA at his own game. A good gunman IRL would do just fine hitting a fellow gunman with his gun, but a martial artist would have no problem defending himself from this attack unless the gunman was himself a good melee fighter. We should also not be required to pay MORE HAM for the exact same attack that another class has when it is OUR specialty. We should be proficient enough to do this without reducing our strength by 1/4. When is the last time you saw a football, rugby, or hockey player try to tackle4 people and then be so tired that he just fell over and couldn't get up for a minute and a half. Tiring yes, self incapacitable no. Let me also say to some people out there SHUT UP ABOUT THE TIMER THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA NO MATTER HOW YOU LOOK AT IT. No time limits should be placed. Rather, as a previous post stated, accuracy reduction for spamming would make much more sense. Especially for ranged fighters... I wonder if they ever heard of something called... RECOIL. Taking careful aim with a weapon and taking one shot is a little different than several rapid shots. Especialy when both you AND the target are running. IRL few people save for actual, certified "marksman" are able to hit anything while running let alone being turned around and defending from punches and kicks.

2. Are defensive skills working?

How can we tell? We are given no way of knowing how these skills work or how well they are working. If the devs turned them off completely one day without letting anyone know about it, would we actually be aware of this change. No, we would have no clue because we can't tell if they do anything to begin with. Thunderwulf, I also think that on this point, you should quote the section of the strategy guide that so many of the TKA have taken on as their forum signature. The devs should know how strongly we feal about this. Let them know:

"Facing an opponent armed with ranged weapons, high-level abilities enable his or her to evade blaster fire and close in quickly, bringing his or her enemy swiftly to the ground."
"Teras Kasi are leathal, nearly impossible to knock down or unbalance"
-Page 267, SWG Strategy Guild (now obsolete since last patch)

is now one of THE most quoted phrases on all the forums. We need (a) in-game confirmation that the defenses work, (b) better descriptions of how thedefenses work (for example, wedo not know HOW unarmed toughness helps us, wesuspect that itadds a mod to damagethatmakes the programming say "base damage is 100 and unarmed toughness is 50 so the resulting damage is 50% less, or 50 damage total".Equilibrium is a major thing on thispoint. Nobody seems to know what it does. It says that it allows us to automatically recover from stance changes. I'm still waiting for thisto happen just one single time.)This would make things more clearand (c) increased defenses in some areas. As to point (c) increased defense is most needed in the area of defense vs. knockdown. Just as in the quote above "Teras Kasi are... nearly impossible to knock down or unbalance" When 2 Teras Kasi masters wish to have a friendly duel, it should not be a matter of "who gets the first knockdown". Our defense in this area is 20, this is the lowest of all the melee and even among the ranged professions when in fact we should be the highest class of all in this respect. After all... WE HAVE A WHOLE BRANCH OF OUR SKILL TREE DEDICATED TO "BALANCE CONDITIONING" AND WE STILL GET KNOCKED DOWN BY LOW LEVEL SMUGGLERS. "Balance is the all-important factor in a fighter's attitude or stance. Without balance at all times, he can never be effective". -Bruce Lee

3. /stick command

I like this idea. It is simple and may actually get dev response. Simply giving us a type of "follow" command that is immune to lag so that we don't get out of range errors that we can't control or do anything about because our interface tells us that we are at3 meters when the server actually has us listed at 6 meters. Simply improving lag and server stability doesn't neccessarily fix this. We need a guarantee that we are in range when the game tells us we are in range. In a related topic, player speed based on weapons and armor would help a lot of these problems as well. Many other games such as Counter Strike did this for 1st person shooters, its not too much to ask that a highly armor encumbered fightercarrying a carbine would would not run as fast as an unarmed man in an infiltration suit. All attacks in the game should also cause an extremely brief pause, as would be expected and is incorporated into nearly all other games in the world. Nobody attacks quite the same they would if they just got punched or shot. TKA should also be able to do attacks to slow an opponent's attacks and movement (this would be a great addition to the unarmed leg hit). "Use the speedy delivery of kicks to 'arrest' your opponent's 'moving away from neutrality'" -Bruce Lee.

4. Meditation branch

I've heard many people complain that this tree needs a seperate XP type. I find this to be the least of the worries for meditation. Let me say it is one of the most useful skills on earth when you are bleeding, and you will thank God Almighty that you have it for those 15 seconds. After that however... The main concern with this should be that it gives increased regeneration rates to all HAM. At first barely noticeable and by master status... nearly instantaneous regen. Think Wolverine from X-men here. It won't be an unfair advantage, since we can't use it during fights or anything like that, it would just be a post-combat bonus purely for the TKA. Power boost is also useless. First time I thought it was cool, kinda like having spice with you at all times, but it wears off before the fight is even over (example based on encouter against mid level enemiessuch asImperial medics). The wounds and battle fatigue that it gives are terrible and stupid high mental DAMAGE would make perfect sense but using this move twice without a trip to a med center is suicidal. Why would meditation cause you to take battle fatigue anyway?Bruce Lee wrote:

To meditate means to realize the imperturbability of one's original nature. Surely, meditation can never be a prcess of concentration, because the highest form of thinking is negation. Negation isastate in which there is neither the positive, nor its reaction as the negative. It is a state ofcomplete emptiness.

Meditationshould relievestresses and such, not add to them. Making this the only ability in the game that can heal BFaway from a cantina would be a HUGE boost to our class.Having a BF heal available at high TKA levels would be a great treat.

5. Specials

Not much to say here that hasn't already been said in "1. Knockdown Nerf". Quite simply put, it should not take more energy to swing your fist than for a heavy swordsman to swing his cleaver. After all the great martial artist that I have already quoted (Bruce Lee) also said: "Good form is the most efficient manner to accomplish the purpose of a performance with a minimumof lost motion and wasted energy". We should not be required to pay more HAM for simple attacks, it just isn't in the nature of a martial artist. "Economy of Motion" is one of our primary skills. The idea that low level TKA would pay more for attacks and extremely TKM would have relatively no HAM cost and could thus perform many combinations of attacks is one of the best ideas we have had so far.

1. Knockdown Nerf -- Reduce HAM cost by 50%, make it so the timer does not stack.
   
2. Are defensive skills working? -- No comment
   
3. /stick command -- Would be nice, I assume latency issues will always restrict this from working too well
   
4. Meditation branch -- Power Boost needs to have a min duration of a few minutes at least. Also Force of Will success rate might be too low? Also is it really necessary for it to drain all our HAM bars? Makes it virtually useless in PvP. PvE sometimes the vicious enemies will ignore you after you stand up.
   
5. Specials-- I know they at least reduced the HAM cost on Unarmed Hit 3. They also reduced the damage while they were at it, which was a bit disappointing. My big issue with specials is that they seem to have negligible effect on NPC's. I can stack Blind, Dizzy, Stun, Warcry, Intimidate and still get my ass handed to me. Why burn HAM on other specials when I can knockdown and stop damage for 12 seconds?

I say just put knockdown back the way it was. They alreadynerfed it so that it does not work all the time and does not last as long. This later nerf i mentioned has really no effect on pvp since most players have very little hp compared to big mobs, Knockdown gives us a chance agains big mobs and was fine the way it was. I really dont undestand what it was nerfed for pvp when a ranged guy can, kill you nerf or not ,from a distance and with one shot. KNock the way it was at least gave us a chance.

Please explain to the developers that these knind of nerfs do not seem well thought out to us and really errode our trust in them and the game

I havent been able to play at all >_< so I dont have many issues but from reading around we need knockdown nerfed again (whenever we like something they nerf it, so maybe if we tell them to nerf it it might be better )

Lower HAM costs and special move HAM costs on Knucklers to something more reasonable because I have a scout blaster and its special move costs are 11/13/11.

Make force of will work more often, a master meditate skill should be better than that.

When they start adding new professions (urban designer,politician etc.) we need more skill points for at least another novice elite/hybrid profession me thinks.

these issues are good enough for me, though i think the weapons need improvement in general to make them more in line with the weapons available to other elite professions.


1. Knockdown Nerf

what's wrong: we have to unequip VKs to use the skill because of the HAM costs. yet we get slower without VKs, which is silly. we NEED to use the skill because we have no defense without it and stuff runs away. we can't hit things that are running. other classes have ranged knockdown that use less HAM and makes us look stupid because we have to get in harm's way to do the same thing.

how to fix it: options include either making us less dependent on the skill by fixing other stuff or reducing the HAM cost.

(a) increase defense so knockdown is not our only way to stay alive.
(b) remove the speed reduction of fighting unarmed.
(c) grant a /stick so that the server thinks we're in range when we use it, assuming the victim doesn't have burstrun or some other speed bonus activated so that we aren't as reliant on knockdown.
(d) give us a better chance to hit things that are running so that we aren't as reliant on knockdown.
(e) reduce the HAM cost to the skill, or at least reduce the MIND cost because that can't be healed. if the only damage is to stats that can be healed, we would be encouraged to group with medics.
(f) remove all damage from ranged knockdown specials unless they are at melee range.
(g) all of the above!

2. Are defensive skills working?

i don't know. i doubt it. if they do work, they don't appear to work against mobs and PCs that are the level you fight when you're at TKA level, so i would suspect no. i don't know what's wrong or how to fix it except by increasing their value so they DO work.


3. /stick command

what's wrong: it doesn't exist. it needs to exist for all brawler classes. why?

(a) /follow doesn't work with many keyboard layouts. when /follow does work, it isn't reliable enough to keep one in melee range.
(b) large mobs maintaining their ideal range keep meleers from getting in range. flying mobs are difficult to get near.
(c) server latency means the brawler isn't where he thinks he is.
(d) ranged classes automatically stay on target. essentially, a /stick would be the equivalent to melee classes. currently, melee requires much more "twitch" skill than range classes. twitch skills don't work well when everyone has differing network latencies.

how to fix it:
(a) add /stick. /stick should automatically keep the brawler in range of his target unless the target is actually FASTER than the brawler. this command should be processed server side.
(b) the only weapon available for a TKA is the VK, which requires an extremely tight range. the range should actually be greater with VK than without because it physically gives the TKA a longer reach.
(c) make ranged classes have to retarget their weapon with every shot so that they have to twitch as well. this would add some balance between the professions while still giving the ranged users their RANGE advantage.

4. Meditation branch

What's wrong: it does nothing a novice medic can't do faster. it's just filler, serving to make the TKA use extra exp and skill credits to achieve master status.

How to fix it: make it do something useful, perhaps increasing the power of what it already does.

5. Specials

i haven't gotten far enough in the profession to evaluate these.

Excuse me, but what exactly is the /stick

/stick is a feature other games have to battle lag for melee fighters. you type in /stick and your character automatically moves itself to stay in fighting range of that to which you are /sticking.

1. Knockdown Nerf
2. Are defensive skills working?
3. /stick command
4. Meditation branch
5. Specials

_______________________________________________________________________________

1. Make itsoKD attacks your target and not yourself.

2. That is the question.

3. This is a good idea if #1 and #2 are fixed. Otherwise it's suicidal.

4. Is ittoo much to ask for it to do something before master level? Like increase regeneration. Temporary buff the secondary stats like focus, strength, quickness and constitution.Even slowly heal wounds. It also needs it's own xp. Why is it fair for a scout or ranger to get points sitting around in a camp but we cant while meditating?

5. Specials? What specials? You mean the suicide moves? Shouldnt specials be to our advantage and not our attacker's advantage?

The bottom line is we kill ourselves trying to use the skills that we work so hard to get (if the skills work at all). Doesnt make sense.Give us a few victories.Something to brag about. Dont we deserve a profession to be proud of? Shouldn't the climb up the skill tree have some rewards? Can we have skills that we can proudly call our own? Or are we just suicide artists? Any more nerfs to this already broken profession in the name of balance or otherwiseand I throw in the towel.

Oblio, Starsider

TKA Novice trained durni killer.

... with their PC Squad Leader at their helm.

Where are my Rebel Troopers? =P

Ghilker

DP

Ghilker

1. knockdown nerf was kinda ptless to do, since we sucked balls at pvp anyways. Just put it back how it was.

2. I do seem to be taking some strange amounts of dmg from some small things, not high level TK, but i took a long ass break and even from the week i took off i can still remember that i could kill a lght blue enemy without getting scratched too bad, unlike now.

3. no idea what that

sorry bout double post

4. meditation should be gained through using meditation.

5.specials not linkable for TK??? Right...... thats the stupidest thing i've ever heard, not gonna dwell on the subjeect tho, shouldjust be able to link em. I guess more moves aint too shabby either

Knockdown needs to be fixed, I don't care if this isn't a class specific skill, one of the correspondants has to have the class to report a broken skill.

The effects stack, for no good reason. The mob gets right back up after being knocked down, without the proper animation and isunable to fight back.Theskill needsto be fixed.

Once it is, fix the ham costs, fix the VK range and I'm happy.