Jedi Mind Tricks?!

[Isleh]

Publis 27 preview

Hey folks,

I wanted to take a few minutes to post some information about the next publish we have been working on. The current plan is to have Publish 27 live on January 17, 2006. We have some new features that are going to be part of publish 27 that we wanted to get out in front of our community to start some discussion.

Here are the high-level bullets of what we are working on:

1. The creation of a new heavy weapons system that is being integrated with fast action combat. One of the highlights of the system is that characters will be able to target any area and fire their weapons as opposed to the current targeting which requires players to fire specifically at an NPC.

2. The enhancement of the stealth and trap game systems. This will include the addition of new class specific items and abilities for the following professions: Jedi, Spy, Smuggler, Commando and Bounty Hunter.

3. We are also completing some additional enhancements to the Jedi class that will include some new abilities that will be easily recognized by any Star Wars fan. I have waited a long time to use Jedi Mind Tricks in Galaxies and now Im finally going to get my chance.

4. We are adding a Go Home Button to space that will allow players to hyperspace back to the space station that they have launched from. We are hoping this added convenience makes space a lot less daunting to travel in.

5. We are also continuing the effort to correct issues and streamline the content path we have created with the NGE. You will see a lot of content path issues on Mustafar, Kashyyyk, Tatooine and Naboo addressed with the release of Publish 27.

We are excited to get these changes to the community and I wanted to let you know what was in progress so you could see what weve been up too here just before the holidays. You will also see a lot of details on this in Thunderhearts Report to the Community which will be posted later on today. Each of the individual developers implementing these features will post specifically about what they have been working on.

Thank you folks for all of the feedback you have been posting to the team. We have been reading through it and I hope we continue to hear from you on these new features as they are being implemented.

Regards,
Mario Rizzo
Associate Producer, Star Wars Galaxies
Sony Online Entertainment

Original SOE Post

[Isleh]

Sweeps for Jedi

In Development: Profession Specialization - Jedi Enhancements
Here is a first look at the proposed changes that are intended to make Jedi a powerful melee class and give them some additional abilities that grow the profession to meet their namesake as a Jedi.

The focus is to strengthen the effectiveness of Jedi in combat by increasing their defenses versus damage and offering them more abilities to augment their melee focus.

Here are the new groups of abilities:

Strikes and Sweeps

Strikes needed more variety so we are changing some of the strikes to be sweeps. Sweeps work exactly like strikes, but they will be 360 degree attacks. Strikes and Sweeps will require a Lightsaber or melee weapon to launch these attacks (any Lightsaber or melee weapon can be used).


Focus Buffs

Jedi will be getting 3 new offensive buffs added to this group of abilities to complete the power progression through level 90. This will give Jedi increased damage (including melee) up through mid and high levels.


Force Throw

Force Throw will be changed so that it is now a single ability that can be used with any Lightsaber or melee weapon.


Jedi Stances

The Jedi stances are all being unified into one group of abilities that will all deliver strong defensive buffs. For example at level 22, Jedi will get an ability that will give them an immunity to Poison effects for the duration of the stance and cure any poisons that the character may have been suffering from. Another stance comes at level 54 which adds an additional chance to block or dodge incoming attacks.

The important thing to keep in mind is that highest level stances have all the previous benefits of the low and mid level stances. There are additional stance surprises up through level 90!


Force Lightning

We have reduced the activation and cool-down timers to this group of abilities.


Force Run

Terrain Negotiation will be added as a bonus to this ability.


Self Heals

We have added another self-heal at level 14 so Jedi will have a complete ability progression.


Force Chokes

Force Choke will be changed so that it uses the range of the special ability and doesn't rely on the range of an equipped weapon.


Special Abilities: Tool Tips that Matter

A lot of Jedi abilities have different sorts of restrictions. One of the recurring things we saw on the boards is that players weren't always clear in understanding which abilities used a weapon, which didn't, and other sorts of ability-specific details.

We will be including all of these details in the tool tip for each of the Jedi abilities, the effects and the restrictions are clear and easy to understand.


Jedi Mind Tricks

Rounding out this list of changes to Jedi Abilities is the addition of Jedi Mind Tricks! This exciting and iconic new ability can be used to reduce the Strength and Precision of NPCs, Creatures and Players by making them less effective in combat.

By using the Jedi Mind trick, a Jedi will be able to escape NPC's and Creatures with a wave of their hand. NPC's and Creatures will lose all interest in attacking the Jedi so he can "move along". At higher levels, this ability will affect all NPC's and Creatures in an area!

We hope you like these changes and I look forwarding to reading your feedback!

Happy Holidays!



EJDev
Senior Game Designer
Star Wars Galaxies

[mayth]

yes!!!my hevey wepions! ha i get to set grass on fire! hmm i wounder if there adding cannons?......ops..wrong thread.

[snado]

Sweeps... Goooooooood.....

Though there would be some nut who would probaly find a way to make that sound cheap to other proffessions, making em think that jedi are over powered (does this sound familiar or what?)

[Isleh]

Sweeps are necessary since heavy weapons will also have an area.

[Sai'nu]

I'm a little eager to see what a 'spin group' on the Vette will look like now. If sweeps wind up being like our old Spin AoEs anyway.