Imperial Agent

• Fitting into the MMO Trinity
  • DPS Both Sniper & Operative Advanced Class
  • Healer Operative Advanced Class Medic Tree
• Advanced Class Variants
• Operative
  • Stealth DPS, Concealment Tree
  • Lethality Shared DPS Tree
  • Healing Medic Tree
• Sniper
  • Marksmanship Sniper Rifle Damage
  • Engineering Tech Damage Probes and other devices
  • Lethality Shared Damage Tree
• Hybrid
  • Operative Combining Medic & Concealment Tree
  • Operative Combining Medic & Lethality Tree
• Complimentary Companions
• Kaliyo D’Jannis
  +Range Tank (Male Romance)
• Vector Hyllus
  • Melee DPS (Female Romance)
• Dr. Lokin
  • Healer/DPS (Transforms Into Rakghoul)
• Ensign Raina Temple
  • Range DPS (Male Romance)
• Scorpio
• Melee Tank (Psychotic Droid)
• Storyline Overview
  • You are an Agent fresh out of training, using guile and deception to forward the Imperial Agenda… Just remember, as an Imperial Agent, Conscience is optional
• Equipment / Stats Overview
  • Cunning, Cunning and more Cunning
  • Agents of any Advanced Class or Spec will want to focus on: Critical Rating, Surge Rating, & Alacrity.
• Iconic Moves
  • Snipe
  • Vibro Knife Stabbyness
  • Orbital Strike
  • Explosive Probe
  • Cover Mechanic

Republic Trooper

• Fitting into the MMO Trinity
  • Tank – Vanguard Class
  • DPS – Either Advanced Class
  • Healer – Commando Advanced Class
• Advanced Class Variants
• Vanguard
  • Tank Shield Specialist Tree
  • DPS Tactics or Assault Specialist Tree
• Commando
  • Healer Combat Medic Tree
  • DPS Gunnery or Assault Specialist Tree
• Hybrid
  • Commando Combining Combat Medic & Gunnery Tree
  • Vanguard Combining Shield Specialist & Assault Specialist Tree
• Complimentary Companions
• Special Note All Trooper Companions use Heavy Armour and Aim/End as their primary stats which is great for hand me down gear.
• Aric Jorgan
  • Range DPS (Cathar, Female Romance)
• Elara Dorne
  • Healer (Imperial Defector, Male Romance)
• M1–4X
  • Range Tank (Prototype Battle Droid)
• Tanno Vik
  • Melee Tank (The Loose Cannon Soldier)
• Yuun
  • Melee DPS (The Philosophical Soldier)
• Storyline Overview
  • You are a Republic Trooper from Special Forces Division, joining the most elite unit in the Republic Military, “Havoc Squad”
    +You take on the missions that no one else can.
• Equipment / Stats Overview
  • Aim for Commando’s and DPS Vanguards along with Power, Crit, Surge, & Alacrity
  • Endurance for Tanking Vanguards, along with Defense, Shield, & Absorption Ratings.
• Iconic Moves
  • Full Auto
  • Sticky Grenade
  • Mortar Volley

---

Star Wars: The Old Republic not losing subscribers, says dev

• Speaking to GameSpot in a recent article, BioWare’s Daniel Erickson claims subscriber numbers have not dipped, but concurrent users during peak playtimes have.
• He says that this is why players may have experienced “light” server populations and that BioWare is considering merging servers in response the lessened concurrent user population, but this action is not a priority.

Georg Zoeller explains the PvP changes in 1.2

• The formula for Expertise (a stat found only on PvP gear) has been changed so that is more important in PvP than any other stat bonus. Because of this even the base Recruit gear is better than Columi gear for PvP. He goes on to say that since burst damage is “slightly higher than we are targeting” more changes will likely be coming.
• Source

TV Campaign / Expansion into New European and Middle Eastern Countries

• Bioware is now expanding into Europe and the Middle East, for a full list of countries
• There are also new commercials coming out for The Legacy, Jedi, and Sith

Action being taken against exploits and cheats

With Game Update 1.2, new measures were put in place to improve our detection of exploits, particularly in relation to ‘speed hacking’ and teleport cheats. With the help of this improved detection, we recently took action against hundreds of game accounts."These speed hacks and teleport cheats were something that I saw people QQing about in the PvP zones.
+ Source

James Ohlen, SWTOR Game Director, on In-game-events

• “The Rakghoul Plague was a very popular event. You’re going to see more surprises like it in the future. I want to hear your thoughts on why you thought the Rakghoul plague was fun. Also, what kind of stuff would you like to see in the future?” Source
• Erickson said that the events may be one-off events in a recent PCGamer article
  • “Events are, by their very nature, transient things that build a sense of history within the game”
  • “Later you’ll pull out your red rakling pet and say, ‘remember when the rakghoul plague hit.’”
  • James Ohlen @JamesOhlen

EA Stock Soars With Nexon Buyout Rumors

Free-to-play developer/publisher Nexon could be looking to buy Electronic Arts. According to Bloomberg, which picked up on the news from a Korean newspaper, Nexon “has contacted EA about making an offer.” No word on whether this would see EA absorbed or merged.
EA’s shares are, as of press time, up almost six percent following the alleged approach, which is the highest they’ve been in six weeks. Source

• Mr. Mars Base “The idea of Nexon buying out EA is a little preposterous given the amount of cash Nexon would have to come up with, if anything a merger is more likely… Furthermore there is a possibility that the US government might not allow a merge due to monopoly laws.”

Math Segment – Rested XP

• Intended to provide casual players with a boost to XP gain that would help them to make up for not being able to spend more time playing the game.
• By leaving your character in a rest zone (cantina / fleet / personal ship) when you log off you will receive the XP boost which can be seen as your XP bar becoming green.
• The longer you remain in a rested area, the greater the XP boost you receive.
• The boost provides double XP for the amount of “rested XP” you have saved up.
• You can get up to a maximum of 100% of the XP cost of your current level.
  • You gain this at a rate of 14.3% of your current level total per day.
  • Level 24 requires 126,595 XP to attain.
  • Leaving a level 24 character in a rest zone for 1 week would gain 126,595 rested xp meaning that the character would get double xp for the next 126,595 xp gained.
• Once the rested xp boost is consumed, the xp returns to normal colouring.

Community Q&A: April 27th, 2012

• Events
• Expect different formats to future events to avoid becoming predictable
• Event sizes will vary from server wide, highly publicised events to stealthy additions
• Overall, the Rakghoul event is considered to have been a great success

• Dual Spec
• Intended as being within your advanced class
• Example: Sith Warrior cannot swap between Juggernaut and Marauder but could swap between the 3 available skills trees within each advanced class
• Tentatively scheduled for path 1.4

• Datacrons & Legacy System
• Currently need to be collected on every character to gain the benefits
• Proposal to have them benefit across all characters in a Legacy is being considered

• Crafting Math
• Baseline crit chance is derived from your current crew skill level compared to item difficulty
• Orange difficulty means 10% crit chance / Yellow,Green, Grey means 15% crit chance
• Companions with bonuses specified as +1 or +5 mean + 1% and +5% respectively
• Affection level is crucial here too as using a companion with +2 bonus on a green level crafting mission with maximum affection means a 22% bonus [15+2+5]
• This means that every 2,000 affection points grants a 1% bonus

• Social Gear
• At present, armours from social vendors are locked as light / medium / heavy
• In patch 1.3, these armours will adapt to the armour proficiency for your class
• Example – Imperial Trooper Helmet when purchased by an Inquisitor is a Light Armour item but when purchased by a Warrior it becomes a Heavy Armour item

• Commendation Mods While Levelling
• Not intended to be optimal for your class while levelling
• Designed to encourage you to seek out a crafter for custom orders

• Unify Colour For Companions
• Not currently scheduled but being planned for future inclusion
• Will likely include the option to hide the head slot also

• Loot Drop Bias For End Game Flashpoints
• All loot tables are biased towards dropping items for classes present in the group
• Levelling Flashpoints are also subject to this loot bias
• End Game Flashpoints have not been using this loot bias thus far
• This is intended to “almost” guarantee a high level drop that will be useful to one of the classes in the group during that specific end game flashpoint

• Character Transfer /Low Population Servers
• Rolling out early this summer
• At first there will be free transfers from/to specific servers, to allow players to move onto higher population servers
• Later, promotional transfers and paid services will be available

• RE’ing Armour Set Bonuses
• Items with set bonuses can have those extracted and moved to an equivalent “orange” item
• Only applies to the armoring modification in affected items
• This only works with new armours added to the game with 1.2 and anything added later
• Older items cannot be handled in this way because the set bonus is attached to the “shell item” rather than the armoring modification

• Patch 1.3
• Group finding system
• Next stage of the Legacy system (already advertised in game from the Legacy menu)

Next Episode Teaser

• *Next week on TORked: *

  • We visit with the Guardians of peace and justice in The Old Republic – the Jedi Knight & the Jedi Consular to learn how they intend to keep the Sith Empire from dominating the galaxy.

  • We’ll have a new Math segment with Nikki – “The Hard-Mode Flashpoint & Operation Preparation Guide” where she will share the secrets of forging your level 50 into a viable, hard-mode Flashpoint, & Operation ready machine! AWWWWW YEAH!

May the Force Be With You!

> News

• Bioware Podcast –
• Crafting & Crew Skills Update
• Community Q&A –
• In Game Events –
• Patch 1.3 Teases –

> Main Content

• 1.2 Patch Notes Continued
• Class Updates – Brief Overview
• New Flashpoint / Operation / Dailies / Warzone
• Guild Bank & New Armour sets
• Further additions slated for Patch 1.3
• The MMO Holy Trinity
• Tank – Leading the charge in battle, Holds Aggro of the enemy(s)
• Healer – Support Role repairing damage taken from enemy fire
• Damage Dealer (DPS) – Kick the everloving shit out of the enemy
• The “perfect” team – balance of all 3 (including differences of advanced classes)
• SWTOR Advanced Class Combinations
• PvE Group Composition Example (flashpoint) 1 Tank, 1 Healer, 2 DPS,
• Strong Group Composition Example (operation / raid) 2 Tank, 2 Healer, 3 DPS, 1 Hybrid (Someone who can DPS or Heal)
• Class Diversity in SWTOR –
• Tips & Tricks
• Key binds
• Focus targeting

> Ep3 Teaser

• 1.2 patch notes part 3 – SO many changes and updates to investigate
• Test server feedback from our team as they continue to explore
• The “Power Of The Sith” – we delve into the dark side to see just why the Sith Warrior and Sith Inquisitor classes are so popular. It might be a “shocking” experience so be prepared.

Community Feedback

1. Community Question – What are your ideas to bring the other Crew Skills up to par with the earning power of slicing?

The post Tank, Heal or Damage | TORked 2 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

]]> https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/1898/your-suggestions-to-fix-pvp-stoked-31/ Tue, 27 Apr 2010 07:06:18 +0000 https://original.jupiterbroadcasting.net/?p=1898 This episode features your top feedback on PvP in Star Trek Online, plus another info-packed MATH segment, this week: Cannon Math!

Plus we cover the top stories for Star Trek Online, and the greater Star Trek community. 

The post Your Suggestions to Fix PvP | STOked 31 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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This episode features your top feedback on PvP in Star Trek Online, plus another info-packed MATH segment, this week: Cannon Math!

Plus we cover the top stories for Star Trek Online, and the greater Star Trek community. 

Direct Download Links HD | Medium / 540p | 360p / iPod Video | MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | OGG Video | YouTube

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Grab the STOked iPhone/iPod App and download STOked plus bonus content on the go!

NEWS:

Expanding Universe, Pt 3:  https://www.startrekonline.com/videos

Sneak peaks into the next two STF missions:  “Khitomer Accord” and “Undine Terradome”

– Khitomer Accord is already live, but this video does give away part of the plot that we’ve been keeping hidden…

** If you look closely during the last action sequence of that part of the video, you’ll see Romulan Borg.

– Undine Terradome sounds like a LOT of fun…

** Infiltrate their training facility and find a way to distinguish Federation (or KDF?) hostages, from Undine disguises.

** This mission is not part of the Borg story arc, and doesn’t have any prerequisites.

Death Penalty Details — https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=152455

– “Normal” Difficulty = NO PENALTY.  No change in overall gameplay as currently set.

https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=2586482#post2586482

– Details for “Injury System”:

    * Low chance of incurring a debuff to various systems/stats per death.  Higher difficulty = higher chance of major injuries.

        — Chance of injury is low enough that they “shouldn’t usually stack past about 2.”  30 minute debuff.

    * Ground = fixed with Regenerators.  Space = fixed with Components. (purchased at Stations, stack up to 20)

    * (Ripoff of Dragon Age’s death penalty!)

Wrath of Khan uniform w/ Open Flap

Including this because I get asked this question A ZILLION TIMES PER DAY…

Dev Response:  mhighison: “Took a look and both the closed and the open TWoK uniforms were set since launch day to be unlocked by anyone who had the key. It doesn’t seem like everyone is getting both variants for some reason, so we are looking into a bug fix now. Cheers,Matt.”

https://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=2582702&postcount=107

Leonard Nimoy announces retirement:  https://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/tv/2010/04/19/13639516.html

Unofficial announcement of Skill Cap Increase:  https://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=2583126&postcount=147

DStahl: “Klingon Episodes, a new end game sector (to go along with increased skill cap), and a neutral sector for all factions are in the works for Season 2 launch.”

(Previous rumors indicate Season 2 will be out in approx. June 2010.)

MATH:

This segment, I’ll be covering the pros & cons of each separate type of Cannon.  Even non-Escort captains may find this handy, to understand their cannon-wielding friends AND FOES.

Weapon Type:

There are 3 types of cannons:  Basic, Dual and Dual Heavies.  

There is a fourth type of “cannon” that is not Escort-specific:  Turrets.  They benefit from all cannon-related skills and abilities, but can be equipped on any ship. Very high power-drain over time, due to 360 firing arc.

Basic Cannons: 

Basic Cannons have a lower overall DPS than the other types of cannons, but benefit from a 180-degree firing arc.  I see these as an alternative to Beam Arrays, if you simply MUST have a wider firing arc than is offered by Dual cannon types. The lower DPS is a noteworthy hit though, so I do not recommend using them. I’ll focus the rest of my notes on DUAL vs. DUAL HEAVY.

Rate of Fire / Energy Drain:

Each of the ‘dual’ type of cannons deal the same dps (damage per second) but Heavies deal the damage in 2 bursts (vs. Dual’s 4 bursts), and draw slightly more energy per volley.  However, you’ll actually end up being able to sustain your rate of fire more easily using DHC in lieu of Dual cannons, due to the slower rate of fire — less up-time, more regen time.  DHC fires for 1 sec and recharges for 2, requiring that you only regenerate 6 energy per second between shots.  DC fires for 1 sec and recharges for 1, requiring you to regenerate 10 energy to stay topped off.

Firing Arc Utilization:

The bursty approach of the DHC allows you to potentially output closer to your ENTIRE damage potential while your enemy is maneuvering in & out of your firing arcs.  If an agile enemy ship only dips into your target zone long enough for you to fire one projectile, the DHC burst will deal much more damage than a DC in that single burst.  On the other hand, a MISS with a Heavy cannon is a much larger dip in your overall damage, than a miss with a normal Dual.

Critical Striking:

According to popular theory, critical hits are where Dual Cannons really shine, in the long run.  By firing twice as frequently, folks say that they end up doing more damage over time based on your chance of critical strikes.  Whereas the slower, heavier hits from a DHC give you fewer opportunities to crit your enemy.  By extending this logic, skills and abilities that increase your chance to crit, and your severity of crits, will skew your overall character profile slightly in favor of Duals over DHCs.  However, keep in mind that DHCs come with a built-in boost to Crit Severity, which may be enough to even the odds.

Increased Damage %:

Abilities like Tactical Team and Attack Pattern Omega have flat % increases to damage, which suggest that they can be better utilized by DHC volleys.  Fewer shots, bigger hits.  It’s not a huge favor toward DHCs.

Rapid Fire:

Now, what about Rapid Fire?  First of all, it causes you to fire twice as many bullets from a Dual Cannon (8 vs 4), but only 1.5 as many from a DHC (3 vs 2).  That seems to skew the math heavily in favor of Dual Cannons.  But because it also reduces the cooldown on your cannons, the math actually works out to be about even.  The real determining factor here, if you’re very fond of Rapid Fire, is your energy drain.  See my earlier notes re: Drain.

Weapon Special Abilities:

This is another area where Duals outshine their heavy compatriots.  The bottom line is this:  More shots = more chances to proc the special ability.  So higher rate of fire = more procs.  Simple, yes?

In Conclusion:

I personally encourage the use of Dual Cannons, but the difference in the raw numbers is miniscule, if present at all.  Most of the argument in favor of either will send you running to Duals, but if you just like BIG NUMBERS, you won’t be handicapping yourself by using a set of heavy-hitting Dual Heavies.

MAIL:

Responses to PvP idea request…

Boils down to two things:

1) Player-controlled “nodes” (systems or stations)

2) Rewards for large-scale PvP involvement, instead of just for single matches. (buffs, currency tokens, unlocked areas/missions)

The idea of a Neutral Zone sector block is repeatedly mentioned.  Players seem to want to have large-scale territorial conflict with other players.

A lot of players have good ideas to incorporate both Fleet-based controls (encouraging large social gatherings), and a cross-implementation with crafting as well in the form of creating stations and their associated defenses.  I can’t say that I’m personally fond of either of these ideas, as they really penalize the casual players, forcing them to be part of massive fleets in order to progress.  There’s a place for that, but I don’t feel that PvP is that place.  But, you wrote about it, so we brought it up!

Another common idea is that matches would be held on schedules (hourly?  bi-hourly?  etc) so that people know when to participate. (helps to encourage participation – nobody wants to sit on an empty map)  Or at the very least have timers between capturing each node, that are readily visible.

The concept of “open PvP” is also raised repeatedly – being able to challenge opponents from Sector Space, and be thrown into a DSE-type instance to duke it out.  Very open to exploits and griefing though, until an email we received from Barry Neville floated the idea about a PvP flag, that includes a 1-minute timer.  His idea also includes that the ‘loser’ of any PvP match gets auto de-flagged and cannot be challenged, or challenge back, until their 1-minute timer resets.  This is a great way to prevent griefing.  But I’d still be worried about the balance of open challenges… what’s to stop a RA5 from challenging a LtComm to a deathmatch in this system?  Unless sectors become level-banded, which further ruins the social atmosphere…

Full props to Darren_Kitlor for this concept:  https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=150499

Next week’s question:  

Cryptic releases a Ship Interiors poll:  https://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=151987

Tell us about your Ship Interior concepts.  The more detail the better. 

The post Your Suggestions to Fix PvP | STOked 31 first appeared on Jupiter Broadcasting.

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