How will  the combat system affect the non-combat folks doing FS quests and village visits? I'm still confused as to how I'm suppose to make my thrice-weekly trips without killing myself

Is there a way to add a toggle to change the new icons with the old? The new ones are far too 'comicy' to feel Star Warsy.

No, there is not.

With the increase in team play and level of mobs vs. players (Krayts for example) are there any plans to increase loot drops? If it takes 5 guys 20 minutes to down a Krayt a guarenteed drop would be nice.

We are working to ensure that the risk players take is balanced by the reward they receive. However, we cannot make something drop 100 percent without damaging the economy that has been built up around that item. Part of the value of rare items is that fact that they are rare and not something that can be easily harvested.

Is the weapon cap here to stay? Powerhammers cap somewhere near 1100 damage from current data. This means that pre-cu weapons are all basically converting into the same stats. A hammer with 650 max and a hammer with 850 max will both convert in the area of 1065.

In conversion, the top five percent of all pre-cu weapons will be converted into a bonus range which may be as much as 20% higher than the post-CU normal weapons range.

The level system makes it to where players of the same level have comparitive stats reguardless of professions chosen. What is the plan, if any, to make sure that roles still play a factor. IE Being a tank doesn't feel different than not being one. How will the team address this given the level system?

Star Wars Galaxies is still a skill-based game, not a level-based game. The difference between all professions lies in their skill set. For instance, melee combat classes have an emphasis on defense skills while ranged combat classes have an emphasis on offensive skills. Other professions have skills by which groups of enemies are controlled. The leveling system is there to gauge equivalency and is used primarily as a way to quantify things for our conning, reward, and resolution systems.

The diminishing returns outlined in previous documents indicated that stacking would give returns but eventually even out at a certain point. In the current build, there doesn't seem to be caps on specific modifiers (melee/ranged defense, speed, accuracy). Are there any plans to implement diminishing returns or add caps to prevent u83r template choices?

There are no caps, however the formulas that we used are logarithmic and provide significant diminishing returns as these values get higher and higher.

Right now on TC, template choice is take the highest DPS weapon you can find, and stack as many specials/modifers as possible to make this weapon work better for you. For example, in the Pikeman/Swordsman template, you would always use a powerhammer since the powerhammer gives a higher dps, and you can use all of the pikeman specials. There is no benefit/reward from using say, an Energy Lance in this template. The same can be said for all focused templates (ranged/ranged melee/melee)....take the highest DPS weapon in that template and still have all of the rewards. Are we going to be seeing restrictions on specials based on weapons to counteract this problem? (IE, you can only use intimidate with a pike, you can only use armorbreak with a sword)

We will not have restrictions on specials/modifiers for weapons. Weapons of equivalent combat level all have effectively the same DPS. Weapons of lower combat level have lower DPS. We encourage you to seek out weapons appropriate for your level. We plan to provide a bigger variety of weapons at each level to give you the opportunity to trade off weapons.

How does accuracy work in the new system? It seems like the to-hit is affected more by difference in CL than it is by profession mods.

Accuracy does two things:

• Determines probability of hitting the target. 
• If your accuracy is greater than defensive skills of your target, you do additional damage.

Level difference between the player and the target also has an effect on hitting and damage done.

Message Edited by NinthWalker on 04-27-2005 03:41 AM

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Tiggs wrote:

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Is there a way to add a toggle to change the new icons with the old? The new ones are far too 'comicy' to feel Star Warsy.

No, there is not.

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Tiggs wrote:

Is there a way to add a toggle to change the new icons with the old? The new ones are far too 'comicy' to feel Star Warsy.

No, there is not.

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Well in that case, will you be redesigning the HUD to make the new icons fit in better at any point? Right now they do kind of clash with the exisitng interface.

Gift.

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Tiggs wrote:

Is there a way to add a toggle to change the new icons with the old? The new ones are far too 'comicy' to feel Star Warsy.

No, there is not.

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Tiggs wrote:
Level difference between the player and the target also has an effect on hitting and damage done.

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Tiggs wrote:

 

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How will  the combat system affect the non-combat folks doing FS quests and village visits? I'm still confused as to how I'm suppose to make my thrice-weekly trips without killing myself

You will need to get people to help you; your guild, friends or people you hire to help. Combat droids will also be more efficient in protecting you and can be used by any profession.

And how do they protect us on speeders? Is there some magic way that our "help" can keep us from being targeted and one-shotted??? I'm sorry but this answer is just a cop out. Not blaming you TIggs

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How exactly is solo vs group play going to be balanced? Can people still solo a large majority of the game and just not high end content? IE, what percentage will still be solo vs non-solo (group)?

 

You will certainly be able to fight solo in SWG. You may have to be a bit more careful when taking on groups of creatures or enemy NPCs, but you will be able to hunt normally and take missions and quests.

 

That is not to say there won't be high end mobs that require a group. Also, areas that currently require a group to successfully complete will still require a group. It is also likely that a percentage of the quests going forward will also require a group. Good answer.

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How are group missions going to work out? Currently as it stands group levels cap at 80, how high of missions can they pull and complete from a terminal? How is this going to be balanced out for those who prefer solo play? Or, are missions going to continue to scale up based on how large the group is beyond level 80?

 

All mobs are going to have a max level of 80. Difficulty will be increased based on the presence of a “boss” mob. Standard mission terminal missions will cap at 80. A group that takes a lvl 80 mission will fight lvl 80 mobs, with numbers to account for the group size. Thats nice to know

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Is there a way to add a toggle to change the new icons with the old? The new ones are far too 'comicy' to feel Star Warsy.

No, there is not. Again why are they taking the stance of "we know best." Very Very few people like them that I am aware of. What is the reason behind not letting us choose?

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With the increase in team play and level of mobs vs. players (Krayts for example) are there any plans to increase loot drops? If it takes 5 guys 20 minutes to down a Krayt a guarenteed drop would be nice.

We are working to ensure that the risk players take is balanced by the reward they receive. However, we cannot make something drop 100 percent without damaging the economy that has been built up around that item. Part of the value of rare items is that fact that they are rare and not something that can be easily harvested. Good

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Is the weapon cap here to stay? Powerhammers cap somewhere near 1100 damage from current data. This means that pre-cu weapons are all basically converting into the same stats. A hammer with 650 max and a hammer with 850 max will both convert in the area of 1065.

In conversion, the top five percent of all pre-cu weapons will be converted into a bonus range which may be as much as 20% higher than the post-CU normal weapons range. This didnt answer the question at all....

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The level system makes it to where players of the same level have comparitive stats reguardless of professions chosen. What is the plan, if any, to make sure that roles still play a factor. IE Being a tank doesn't feel different than not being one. How will the team address this given the level system?

Star Wars Galaxies is still a skill-based game, not a level-based game. The difference between all professions lies in their skill set. For instance, melee combat classes have an emphasis on defense skills while ranged combat classes have an emphasis on offensive skills. Other professions have skills by which groups of enemies are controlled. The leveling system is there to gauge equivalency and is used primarily as a way to quantify things for our conning, reward, and resolution systems. Ok, but the leveling system affects damage taken, and if its just for quantification why not hide it.

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The diminishing returns outlined in previous documents indicated that stacking would give returns but eventually even out at a certain point. In the current build, there doesn't seem to be caps on specific modifiers (melee/ranged defense, speed, accuracy). Are there any plans to implement diminishing returns or add caps to prevent u83r template choices?

There are no caps, however the formulas that we used are logarithmic and provide significant diminishing returns as these values get higher and higher. Understandable

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Right now on TC, template choice is take the highest DPS weapon you can find, and stack as many specials/modifers as possible to make this weapon work better for you. For example, in the Pikeman/Swordsman template, you would always use a powerhammer since the powerhammer gives a higher dps, and you can use all of the pikeman specials. There is no benefit/reward from using say, an Energy Lance in this template. The same can be said for all focused templates (ranged/ranged melee/melee)....take the highest DPS weapon in that template and still have all of the rewards. Are we going to be seeing restrictions on specials based on weapons to counteract this problem? (IE, you can only use intimidate with a pike, you can only use armorbreak with a sword)

We will not have restrictions on specials/modifiers for weapons. Weapons of equivalent combat level all have effectively the same DPS. Weapons of lower combat level have lower DPS. We encourage you to seek out weapons appropriate for your level. We plan to provide a bigger variety of weapons at each level to give you the opportunity to trade off weapons. Wasn't an original purpose to the CU to make all weapons usable. An easy way to do this is just to switch the percentage of elemental and normal damage on lower level weapons.

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How does accuracy work in the new system? It seems like the to-hit is affected more by difference in CL than it is by profession mods.

Accuracy does two things:

• Determines probability of hitting the target. 
• If your accuracy is greater than defensive skills of your target, you do additional damage.

Level difference between the player and the target also has an effect on hitting and damage done. This contradicts an earlier statment saying that levels affect mostly cons/missions/rewards. This being in there makes leveling not a secondary item, but the primary task.

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_scout_ wrote:

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Tiggs wrote:
Level difference between the player and the target also has an effect on hitting and damage done.

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Just remove this from the core system and the majority of the ppl would be happy ...

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You can remove it yourself - Mobs cap at level 80, so group with a level 80 character, and nothing is going to be a higher level than you (and no damage multipliers on you?) - At least thats my understanding of things (and i have been known to get things very very wrong!)

-Kyei