Upcoming Combat Upgrade Details
Finally, after nearly a year of waiting...
A new beta is being released so that the Combat Revamp can be tested!
Details follow!
- What's Going On With Combat?
I know there are many of you that are eager to know what's going on with our plans to upgrade the combat system and here is the first glimpse at what we are planning, how we plan do it and how we will make you a part of this big change to the Star Wars Galaxies combat system.
Our High Level Goals
Star Wars Galaxies is making bold changes to its extensive in-game combat system. The goal of this all-encompassing set of changes is to make game play more strategic, more interactive and ultimately more engaging and fun for players of all levels. And with the completion of these changes, every player will have the freedom to re-allocate their character's skill points as they wish to take advantage of the new, enhanced combat system.
What's Been Happening?
Since the end of Publish 9 we have been focusing on the in-game combat system, though the design groundwork was done months earlier. Not too long before the initial beta for Jump to Lightspeed began, we had a team meeting and talked about the ongoing development of the Star Wars Galaxies combat system, the community's expectations and the needs of the game to be more strategic, more fun and more interactive for our customers.
As a result of this team meeting, we realized that to meet both our goals and the expectations of the community, just "balancing" the existing combat system wasn't enough. We have expanded the scope of development, with combat balance becoming just one part of the overall project that we're now calling the Combat Upgrade.
The Combat Upgrade is our overall effort to improve our player combat experience, including:
* Combat Balance - tuning all our numbers and the combat professions.
* Core Combat Changes - HAM improvements, Incapacitation & Death changes, Armor and more.
* Combat Additions - more special moves, new counter moves, new armors, new weapons and new crafting options.
Now that Jump to Lightspeed has launched, the Combat Upgrade is our next major milestone in the advancement of the Star Wars Galaxies experience.
We have been working to complete the alpha version of Combat Upgrade since Publish 9. Initial alpha testing will start in a few weeks. We are inviting correspondents, former correspondents and five people each current correspondent has chosen to do this initial testing. We expect alpha testing to take several weeks. When we reach the point where the implementation is complete but some tuning and debugging is needed, we will begin beta testing. At this time, we will begin inviting community members in who have signed up for beta testing. The closed beta testing will probably not start until after the Holidays, dependent on how quickly the alpha testing period has progressed.
You can register for the Combat Upgrade closed beta test here.
Tags: News, StarWarsGalaxies