Publish Seven Info

[Syban]

(Yet again shamelessly taken from swg.stratics.com)

Publish 7 major feature list is out and there is some really nice stuff in it.

Droid & Droid Engineer Enhancements

Droid Damage Repair Kits and Droid Wound Repair Kit

Droid Battery consumption rate halved (enabling them to last twice as long)

Droids will no longer be susceptible to poisons, bleeds, /warcry or /intimidate

Combat Droids will have all the fighting functionality of a regular combat-capable creature (CL10)

These options will function like creature pets.

All players will have the ability to own and operate these combat droids.

A combat droid is a droid that is capable of attacking things, in addition to other potential droid capabilities that can be added to droids currently.

The normal crafting process is used, and a combat module is included in the droid.

Combat module will only mount in droids capable of combat. They can be placed in one of the general droid module slots that already exist on the droid chassis’, seen during the crafting of the droid.

Combat module is crafted in exactly the same fashion as other droid modules, using a draft schematic, resource ingredients, and previously crafted component ingredients.

Combat modules can be crafted at varying quality levels, which can be seen when the module is examined.

Combat modules stack and if more than one of them is placed in a single droid, they have a cumulative effect.

To have the strongest combat droid, six 100% combat modules must be used in constructing a droid.

Preliminary Combat Balance Changes: As part of the ongoing Combat Balance, the team has made some preliminary changes to combat in order to equalize some of the larger changes that have been made recently.

Defensive Modifiers will have a hard cap with profession template stacking. Defense stacking will no longer stack beyond the intended combat calculation limits causing the defender to be nigh invulnerable.

Carbineer Specials have been improved:

The dizzy effect in /fullAutoSingle1, /fullAutoSingle2, /fullAutoArea1 & /fullAutoArea2 have been improved

/burstShot2 was changed from a single target to an AE cone attack

/actionShot2 now hits all targets in the area of effect.

Defense / To-Hit Fixes:

Melee attackers now get a To Hit bonus when attacking targets with ranged weapons.

Dodge enhancing Food now decreases your chance of being hit.

Accuracy increasing food now increases your chance to hit your target.

Dead Eye buff now increases your chance to hit your target.

Warcry has been changed from being a single target lock down preventing it from attacking to a method of “crowd control”. Enemies can be temporarily prevented from attacking as long as they are not currently being attacked themselves.

Bleed DoT Improvements: Targeted pool bleeds (/mindShot1 & 2, /healthShot1 & 2, etc) now hit their intended pool on the initial strike as well as the bleed damage.

Crafting System Enhancements: One of the top concerns for crafters of all types was the issue of “critical fails”. Critical fails are a risk that all crafters take when attempting to create an item. This basic dice roll function is the gamble crafters take as part of the risk of crafting, but as a resounding player concern, the developers looked at the system to see how the relationship of crafter and crafter-risk could be made to have a stronger relationship to the fictional act of crafting. Toward creating a stronger crafting experience, a new modified die roll model has been implemented to enhance the experience so that now, a crafter’s raw ability will have an effect on how often critical fails occur. Crafting still works on the same risk/reward principle of a 5% critical fail chance, but is now modified with the player’s assembly or experimentation skill. As crafters progress from Novice to Master they will have a reduced chance of a critical failure.

Experimentation Resource Quality: Crafting experimentation has been enhanced so that the amount of change that each experimentation point will affect an item attribute will now be calculated by the maximum value for the item. Therefore, regardless of the quality of resources used, each experimentation point will affect the attribute by the same amount. Now, the maximum value upon which a resource attribute is allowed to be experimented is affected by the quality of resources used. This will have a much more noticeable effect on the crafting experimentation process, making it more interesting, challenging and easier to understand. This will noticeably reduce the effectiveness of experimenting with low quality resources by all players. However, this will give master crafters more of an advantage over less skilled crafters, as they have more experimentation points to use, and will be more likely to produce an item with maximum attributes.

Bounty Hunter Jedi Tracking Missions: Now, Bounty Hunters can track player Jedi in the same manner as their NPC targets. Bounty Hunters can get a mission from the bounty hunter terminal for a player Jedi. Go to your contact to get the bio-signature. Then just use your seeker/probot droid to find your target. Keep in mind that unlike the NPC targets, players will move around unpredictably. (As a result, the location updates can lag behind a couple of minutes.) Additionally, Bounty Hunter tracking speeds have been fixed and now as the hunter increases in skill, the speed skill will increase.

Junk Dealer Revamp: Continuing the loot system changes will include the rebirth of the Junk Dealer. As part of this change, Junk Dealers will have more robust conversations, be willing to buy all different types of NPC loot drops and become a new source of income for players. Player will now be able to go adventuring, collect the various loot drops from NPC’s, adventures and dungeons and take it to a Junk Dealer to sell. Junk Dealers won’t buy just any junk either. Different dealers will specialize in different kinds of junk, so players will have to explore and find out which dealer deals in which kind of junk. Be sure to talk to the various Junk Dealers to find out which junk they like the most!

Vertical Item Movement: Another big player request brings the ability to move furniture and household items up and down. Players in all houses can now move items up and down by either using the Radial Menu or the following commands:

/moveFurniture UP (1-50)

/moveFurniture DOWN (1-50)

Players will be able to move items vertically in Player Houses, Merchant Tents, Player Association Guild Halls and all player city structures.

Lighting Objects: Players will now have many craftable light sources in the game that will have the true functionality of a light source. All of the current lamps styles in the game crafted from here on out will now have glow of light. Additionally, many new lamp styles have been added to the game and now players can also have candles. Players will be able to purchase architect crafted candles for players that will flicker and glow for about 2 weeks and then burn away. Lamps will also decay, but at a reduced rate.

Camp Restrictions Removed: After Publish 7, players will no longer be required to be in camps to pull out Vehicles, Mounts, Droids or Pets and can pull them out wherever they are, eliminating the player inconveniences of having to find rural areas far from cities, lairs and other no-build zones in order to build a camp. The basic rules of calling Vehicles, Mounts, Droids or Pets are: (Woot! for non-scouty types!)

A player will not be able to call a vehicle/mount/pet/droid during combat or 60 seconds after combat is concluded.

There is a 30 second delay after you call for a vehicle/mount/pet/droid before it will generate.

A player will not be able to call a mount/pet/droid while mounted or on a vehicle.

A player will not be able to call a vehicle while mounted or on a vehicle.

Player City Garages: Architects will be able to craft Player City Garages that Politicians can place in their cities. This new craftable structure will require a laceName>PlayerlaceName> laceType>CitylaceType> to be at least level 2. Now players will be able to repair their vehicles in many more locations.

Sliced Weapon Tag: With the Empire cracking down on sliced weapons and armor, publish 7 brings the ability for players to be able to view sliced armor and weapons to find out which items have been sliced.

GCW Changes:

Status Effect Changes: The ability to effect the status of inanimate objects has been removed. Players will no longer be able to effect AT-STs, player vehicles, droids and turrets by the special effects of Stun, Dizzy, Blind, Warcry and wookiee roar. Additionally, biological DoT’s (poison and disease) will no longer effect vehicles, droids or turrets and finally, AT-ST’s and players vehicles will be immune to all posture changes.

Flame DoT removal items: Flamethrowers have the ability to inflict fire DoT’s and currently, the only way to remove that DoT in PvP is to submerse a player avatar in a static body of water. The challenge is that Tatooine has only 1 very small body of water and on the swamp planet of Rori, it is possible for a player to have to run for more than 20 minutes to the nearest body of water. To give players a fair chance against this, Doctor’s can now craft Fire Blankets. Fire Blankets will give Doctors the ability to extinguish flame with a /extinguishflame command that will enable the use of the fire blanket. To balance out the Fire Blanket, using the blanket drains the “mind” of the doctor.

Zero HP Turrets: Turrets attached to Factional Headquarters had a chance that when they reached zero, they would remain in the world and continue to attack players. Turrets at 0/0 will now deactivate and be removed from the world.

Bestine Quest Enhancements: The politician, Victor, has a series of new quests for players to experience as part of the Bestine political intrigue saga. When Victor is in power, help him find out what is so dangerous in the desert!

New Mounts: Players have two new mounts available to them with Publish 7; Banthas and Cu-Pa’s!

Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl

Assistant Community Relations Manager