Combat in Empire in Flames, or How I Spent My Summer Vacation

EiF brings you a player’s perspective’s on EiF’s combat system. This post isn’t fully fact checked. Thank you Pizza the Hutt! You are one of my all time favorite Hutts! Enjoy!

-Sandarie, Community Manager

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The combat in Star Wars Galaxies has gone through multiple iterations and changes in its lifetime. Empire in Flames is another such iteration aiming to improve upon some of the inadequacies of the original game in a fashion that differs from the Combat Upgrade (and the subsequent game-changing overhaul that was the NGE). 

While the fundamental mechanics of “Pre-CU” combat still stand, there have been numerous tweaks and changes to encourage a diversity of builds that was sorely lacking in the original game. These modifications to the base emulator take the form of adjustments to stat allocations for each profession, ability changes ranging from minor adjustments of multipliers to new behaviors, and some tinkering to the engine to make combat much more intuitive and interesting.   

Whether you’re an old-hand at Pre-CU combat, an NGE player visiting the past, or completely new to SWG, there are some things that you should know! But where should we begin?   First things first! Before you can fight you need a weapon! If you’re a bareknuckle brawler or an inveterate sniper, your attacks follow the same formula! So, here’s the rundown on your hardware:

1.       Weapon type – This one is the most obvious. A pistol, a carbine, a sword, et cetera. These weapons have their corresponding abilities in their respective professions but here at Empire in Flames we have some special-case scenarios! If you’re a Bounty Hunter, or a Smuggler, your weapon skills are “weapon agnostic” which means you can use these abilities with any weapon equipped! 

2.       Damage type – All incoming and outgoing damage in SWG is “typed” and is compared against a variety of resistances. Not all guns do energy damage, and not all melee weapons will do kinetic. To ensure maximum effectiveness, examine your target (in the case of PvE) to see your opponents’ resistances and equip yourself accordingly!   

3.       Armor Piercing – This is a stat you’ll see on all weapons but you can completely ignore this as Empire in Flames removed Armor Levels from all damage equations!   

4.       Attack speed – This is the base delay for your attacks (in seconds). The CDEF Pistol that you start with, for example, has a speed of 3. Without any skills, you will auto-attack every 3 seconds. But all weapon-specific professions come with a speed stat boost that modifies this value as a percentage. More on this later!   

5.       Damage range – Minimum and maximum damage is self-explanatory.   

6.       Wound chance – Whenever an attack lands, it has a chance to impart a wound to a specific HAM pool. While higher percentages are better, the actual effect is rather small.   

7.       Range modifiers – Ok, so this one might not be super clear as to how exactly it works but it is simply a +/- modification to your attack’s accuracy. Ideally you want to be at the ideal (hehe) range but in most cases you can get away with any spot that’s not a massive penalty (like the -120 @ 64 meters on the starter CDEF pistol).   

8.       Special Attack Cost – These are the base values for the consumption of your HAM pools when you use special attacks. Each special attack has a multiplier that can leave you with an empty action pool in the case of high special costs on your weapons.   

Okay! So that’s a quick review of the weapons and how their stats function. Let’s get started with the combat mechanics and how your skills tie into them. I’m going to start with the novice box of the Swordsman profession because it’s what I have in front of me and it gives me a wide variety of skills to use as examples. In the novice box we have the following skills:

Counterattack, Defense vs. Blind, Defense vs Dizzy, Defense vs Intimidate, Defense vs Stun, Melee Defense, Ranged Defense, Two-handed Melee Accuracy, Two-handed melee Center of Being [duration], Two-handed Melee Center of Being Efficacy, Two-handed Melee Speed, and Two-handed Melee Toughness… whew! That’s a lot of stats! It might be a bit overwhelming, but they’re very straightforward once you get the hang of it!   

Counterattack is one of the three “secondary” defense skills, alongside Dodge, and Block. The way these work is that upon receiving a “successful” attack, you have a chance to react to the incoming damage with these skills.

  • Counterattack allows you to make a free basic attack against your opponent.
  • Dodge always you to sidestep the incoming damage entirely.
  • Block reduces the incoming damage by 75% and has the added bonus on Empire in Flames of making a second block attempt if the first one fails.

These three defense skills are limited to their respective weapons – Counterattack for Carbineer and Swordsman, Dodge for Pistoleer and Fencer, Block for Rifleman and Pikeman.

Note: Heavy Weapons are considered as Rifles by the game and allow you to make use of Block when wielding the Commando’s arsenal. Teras Kasi Artists have a special defense stat called Defensive Acuity which allows you to react to incoming damage with either Counterattack, Dodge, or Block.   

Defense vs [XXXXXX] – These are stats that are generally referred to as “State Defense”. Certain abilities have the benefit of attempting to apply a variety of these states and that is compared against your state defense to determine whether or not it is successfully applied.             

You’re probably curious as to how these states affect you or your target – here’s the hot-skinny.           

    • Intimidate – This state reduces the maximum damage of outgoing attacks\
    • Dizzy – When dizzied, posture changes can cause you to be knocked down.
    • Knockdown– Flat on your back! You are incapable of acting while knocked down and you take extra damage. –          It’s important to note that the way Dizzy/KD works on Empire in Flames is different from SWGEmu in that it is impossible to lock anyone into a Dizzy/KD loop (because this is just no fun!)
    • Stun – Reduces outgoing damage by 10% and lowers Primary Defense (more on what that is in a bit).
    • Blind – Reduces accuracy. Posture change (up/down) – This causes the receiving party to change their posture (standing, kneeling, or prone). Coupled with dizzy, this has the chance to knockdown.   

Next on the list is Ranged/Melee Defense – These are your so-called primary defenses which is what your accuracy is compared against when attempting to hit something. These primary defenses reduce the likelihood of being hit by most, if not all, attacks.

  • Accuracy – This makes your attacks more likely to be successful.
  • Center of Being –  Duration and Efficacy are modifiers to the Center of Being skill (which has just received some interesting changes from Anishor). Duration is in seconds, and the efficacy now functions by way of reducing the players outgoing damage by 25% and increasing their toughness by [Efficacy / 3]. Weapon Speed – This is a percentage modifier to your weapon’s attack speed before ability multipliers. It caps out at +75 which translates to 75% * attack speed (or 1/4 of your weapons attack speed as your effective attack speed).
  • And finally we have Toughness – This is a flat percentage reduction on incoming damage. It makes you “tankier”.   

In addition to all of the above, an important consideration (especially for PvP) is the Ranged and Melee Mitigation skills that come with the combat professions. The way this works is it reduces the damage range of the attacker’s weapon making it less likely for you to receive random “big hits”. Ranged Mitigation applies to incoming ranged attacks, and Melee Mitigation applies to incoming melee attacks.

For the curious, or the mathematically inclined, the formula is [Max Damage = MinDmg + ((MaxDmg-MinDmg)*(<20% for Mitigation 1, 40% for Mitigation 2, and 60% for Mitigation 3>)]   

Now that we have all that out of the way you might be wondering “What the hell do all these abilities do?!” because the tooltips may not accurately reflect what is actually happening. Each special attack ability has a damage multiplier, and an attack delay modifier. Some attacks have a specific pool they target, while others will hit a random pool. Some attacks might even apply a state. Unfortunately due to the changes made by the Empire in Flames team, I don’t have access to the definitive numbers, or what abilities apply what states, but I can give a “broad-strokes” answer regarding the ability choices available.

Higher tiered attacks will generally do more damage, with a higher special ability cost, and a larger attack delay. This means you have the luxury of tailoring your attacks based on your playstyle! Like hitting hard, but maybe not so often? Use the higher tiered attacks! Want to spam specials, as much as possible, or slip in a few extras while your action or mind pool is low? The lower tier specials will fit that niche. Every special has a trade-off which makes using something like SpinAttack1 useful even when you have AreaAttack3.   

That’s all for now! I hope it answers more questions than it creates. Happy hunting and May the Force Be With You!

With Love,              Pizza The Hutt.  

Friday Feature 11/17/2017: A Chat with Wefi

Good Mythi… wait.. .Good Friday everyone! In the spirit of it being Friday, I bring you a feature! The EiF Friday Feature is an interview with Wefi! Enjoy getting to know him better!

EiF: Which versions of SWG did you play? pre-CU, CU, NGE?
Wefi: All three versions of the game
EiF: If you played in the pre-CU live, approximately how long did you play in the pre-CU?
Wefi: Started right after Jump to lightspeed was released. My folks bought me the expansion thinking it was the full game, so I had to wait for a while to be able to play.
EiF: Which server did you play on?
Wefi: I started on bria, moved to Radiant during the CU, Naritus when the NGE hit due to a character bug, and finally Starsider after the Server merges.
EiF: Which classes and which was your favorite?
Wefi: Pre-cu/CU I liked Combat Medic, It was an interesting class to me. I played Jedi during the NGE as I liked Melee Combat…. and also Jedi.
EiF: How many accounts did you own/manage?
Wefi: I had 2 Accounts, My  Nge Jedi, and Medic. My 2nd Was a BH/Jedi and a Tailor.
EiF: What type of gameplay style do you most enjoy?
Wefi: I enjoyed PvP the most, but I prefer to Rp now days as I can work on other things at the saame time.
EiF: What’s a typical gaming session for you, what activities?
Wefi: On and off during the day. At night I tend to play EIF a bit more now. Otherwise I play League of Legends, or some VR game.
EiF: What do you most enjoy about SWG?
Wefi: The Open space. A friend of mine showed me Everquest, and how large it was. When SWG was announced, I was excited for it. Being my own Star Wars character is very attractive. I can be A Jedi, or a Tailor. Most MMO’s have a hard time keeping me in due to the lack of freedom. FFXIV comes close.
EiF: What do you enjoy most about Empire in Flames?
Wefi: New Items being added, and the Open RP community.
EiF: When you are not ingame, what do you enjoy doing?
Wefi: Gaming, Or working on new stuff for SWG. Other than that is really just watching TV.
EiF: What do you do outside of EiF / do for a living?
Wefi: Tow Truck driver.
EiF: What is your role with EiF? What does that entail?
Wefi: I am more of a Content Creator for the client. I every so Often I help with adding new things, Like Models, or something I made that impresses our Dear Leader Halyn
EiF: If you could have ANYTHING instantly in EiF, what would it be?]
Wefi: Jedi, 😛 I need to have my lightsaber for Wefi to be Wefi
EiF: If you could find out one thing about our EiF Community, what would it be?
Wefi: Their favorite Star Wars item.
EiF: What gives you Developer’s Crack?
Wefi: Uhh, I often see things in Star Wars games, or shows, and think that be cool to have. Also I like to challenge myself, and try to do things that were thought impossible, or hard to do.
I look forward to see the upcoming updates to EIF, and see where the story goes. With new ways of editing the client, and the work that goes into the Server code. I assure that EIF will be one of the most Unique Server out there.

Sandarie, Community Manager

((for those wondering about the opening… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Mythical_Morning ))

Patch Notes – 11/17/17

Additions

  • As per popular request, the Tatooine Tavern is now available. It can be crafted as a third option on the Player Tatooine Cantina schematic.
  • Added Dathomiri Player City Hall. This city hall has additional functionality, including a guild terminal and cloning point. The cloner can only be used when the city has been registered with the planetary map. The Dathomiri Player City Hall is slightly more expensive to maintain than a standard player city hall.
  • Added new Dathomiri shuttleport & garage.
  • Added new housing options for Dathomiri city: Nightsister and Dantooine huts from the NGE, the Yoda House from the NGE, and two small cave structures from beta.
  • All Dathomiri structures are acquirable only from a dev; speak to Halyn for details.
  • New shuttles – certain starports are now serviced by a YT-2000 freighter, while Tatooine shuttles are now more appropriately older and shabbier. If you have a player city and prefer the traditional shuttle, no change is required. If you prefer the new, “old” shuttle, simply re-drop your shuttleport.
  • New starport added to Lok.

Changes/Fixes

  • Musician XP gains have been doubled.
  • XP requirements for musician and dancer have been leveled out.
  • XP requirements for the bounty hunter investigation line have been decreased.
  • Novice rifleman XP bug has been fixed.

Balance Changes

A note from Halyn and Anishor: Combat balance is a moving target that responds to players finding unexpectedly powerful combinations & ideas on paper not working out in practice. All changes below are subject to change in either case, and we love hearing feedback on the subject. Please direct your feedback to Anishor, who is the lead on combat balance, whether you find some things too weak or find a super-powerful combination.

  • Time to transfer weapons in combat has been reduced!

State Attacks

  • Skill set special abilities that purpose is to primarily apply a state such as blind, knockdown, dizzy, have had  their damage reduced, the chance to apply the special increased, and the speed delay reduced ( made faster ).
  • Special abilities that do both damage and apply a state have not had their damage or delay changed and only a slight increase in
    in the chance to apply.
  • This was done for the upcoming changes to skill sets and their state defences.

State Defenses:

  • State Defenses have been redistrubted across all skill sets.

Primary Defenses:

  • Melee and Ranged Defense values have been updated on several skill sets.

Center of Being:

  • Reduces a player’s outgoing damage by 25%
  • Increases toughness by Efficacy / 3
  • Can no longer be used while Berserk

Berserk:

  • Can no longer be used while Center of Being is active
  • Increases outgoing damage by 20%
  • Increased the primary defense reduction
  • Secondary Defense will not fire while in berserk state

Bleeds:

  • Bleeds have had their tick interval reduced from 20 seconds per tick to 4 seconds per tick.
  • Damage and length have been updated to match this new interval.
  • Fencer has been refocused toward creating bleeds.

Skill Set changes (state special changes not listed)

Rifleman:

  • Taking cover now reduces damage from ranged sources by 20%
  • Increased DPS of Suprise Shot, this shot acts like a sniper’s attack. Very damaging but very long cooldown.
  • Increased the DPS of Headshot 1-3
  • Increased the DPS of conceal Shot
  • Removed the AOE Cone from Strakeshot 2.
  • Headshot 1 now in Novice box.

Carbineer:

  • Burst Shot 2 Increased DPS, Removed Cone AoE
  • Leg Shot 1-3 Targets Health instead of Action, use Action Shot to target Action pool directly
  • Surpressive Fire 1 now in novice box.

Pistoleer:

  • Increased the damage modifier of body shot 3

Fencer:

  • Reduced the initial damage of 1-H Melee Hit 1, added chance to apply bleed to the pool of attack.
  • Reduced the initial damage of 1-H Melee Hit 2, added chance to apply bleed to the pool of attack, removed chance to dizzy and blind.
  • Reduced the initial damage of 1-H Melee Hit 3, removed chance to dizzy and blind.
  • 1-H Body Hit 1 Added chance for health bleed
  • 1-H Body Hit 2 Added chance for health bleed
  • 1-H Body Hit 3 Added chance for health bleed
  • 1-H Scatter Hit 1 Added chance for bleed on attack pool
  • 1-H Scatter Hit 2 Added chance for bleed on attack pool
  • Reduced AOE range of 1-H Melee Spin 1 to 8m, added chance to bleed
  • Reduced AOE range of 1-H Melee Spin 2 to 8m, added chance to bleed

Swordsmen:

  • 2-H Melee Area 1 Added chance to intimidate
  • 2-H Melee Area 2 Added chance to intimidate
  • 2-H Melee Area 3 Added chance to intimidate
  • 2-H Melee Hit 1 Added chance to intimidate
  • 2-H Melee Hit 2 Added chance to intimidate
  • 2-H Melee Hit 3, Increased dps (decrease in damage multiplier with larger decrease to delay.) decreased the action cost, added chance to intimidate
  • 2-H Melee Spin 1,2 : Increase DPS, reduced range of AOE to 8m
  • 2-H Sweep 1 : AoE range of 8m, chance to lower posture. Reduced Damage
  • 2-H Sweep 2 : AoE range of 8m, chance to knockdown. Reduced the damage ( less chance than pikeman to knockdown )
  • 2-H Head Hit 1-3: Target Health pool instead of Mind.

Polearm:

  • Polearm Area 2 has been brought back from the void, now in your master box.
  • Polearm Area 1 Decreased Delay, Decreased Action Cost, increased Range to 18m added chance to dizzy and stun.
  • Polearm Area 2 Decreased Delay, Decreased Action Cost, increased Range to 18m added chance to dizzy and stun.
  • Polearm Hit 1 – Removed chance to lower posture, added chance to stun.
  • Polearm Hit 2 – Removed chance to lower posture, added chance to stun.
  • Polearm Hit 3 – Removed chance to lower posture, added chance to stun and dizzy.
  • Polearm Spin 1,2 : Increase DPS, reduced range of AOE to 8m, Reduced Action Cost
  • Polearm Sweep 1 : AoE range of 16m, chance to lower posture. Reduced Damage and reduced the delay
  • Polearm Sweep 2 : AoE range of 16m, chance to knockdown. Reduced the damage and reduced the delay
  • Leg Hit 1-3: Targets Health instead of action pool

Tera Kasi:

  • Unarmed Spin 1,2 : Reduced range of AOE to 8m
  • Unarmed Combo 2: Reduced speed delay
  • Unarmed Hit 3: Increased DPS slightly (Reduced Initial Damage, Decreased Delay)

Doctor Buffs:

  • Enchance Packs have had their power increased. Health and Action Packs have higher power than their secondary pools.
  • The forumula for EiF Buff Result Value : Heal Power of Pack x Environment x [[(100 + Wound Treatment Skill + Bivoli + BE modded clothes) / 100] x Med City Bonus] / 5
  • Janta Blood : Reduced power, signifigantly increased use count.

Friday Feature 11/10/2017 – A Chat with BluePyros

This week is another installment in the EiF chats with staff, featuring BluePyros!

EiF: Which versions of SWG did you play? pre-CU, CU, NGE?

Blue: I played from mid CU all the way through the NGE

EiF: Which server did you play on?

Blue: I started on Intrepid but transferred to Starsider, as that server faded a little over a year before the free transfer initiative.

EiF: Which classes and which was your favorite?

Blue: In the CU I was Rifleman/Commando and NGE I favored commando early, but quickly became and stayed smuggler for the majority.

EiF: How many accounts did you own/manage?

Blue: Like many I had 2 accounts and often had both going at once.

EiF: What type of gameplay style do you most enjoy?

Blue: Almost everything, but PVP is my jam and I can find enjoyment in.

EiF: What’s a typical gaming session for you, what activities?

Blue: Its varies from days to days, but I try to set long term objectives and work towards them.

EiF: What do you most enjoy about SWG?

Blue: It’s one of the last real sandboxes out there.  Enough structure that it’s not all DIY, but free enough that almost anything is possible.

EiF: What do you enjoy most about Empire in Flames?

Blue: That we have a chance to do things long thought impossible and make a better galaxy with our own hands.

EiF:  When you are not ingame, what do you enjoy doing?

Blue: I’m still a nerd at heart, so I can usually be found playing some manner of game.

EiF: What do you do outside of EiF / do for a living?

Blue: I work for the IT department of a Health and Human Services org.

EiF: What is your role with EiF? What does that entail?

Blue: Jack of many trades.  The biggest thing I did was converting all the houses into miniature versions, as part of the holo deeds.

EiF: If you could have ANYTHING instantly in EiF, what would it be?

Blue: All the old friends and players we’ve lost and left behind over the years.

EiF: If you could find out one thing about our EiF Community, what would it be?

Blue: What draws in the people who never played SWG when it was live.

EiF: What gives you Developer’s Crack?

Blue: I’m not really a dev, more of a modder at this point.  Bending things to my will so they work how I want.