Chapter 1.3 Testing

[Sereya]

Roger on the BH hunting system changes Tyclo. Hopefully it all works out well.

And thanks for the reduction from 85% to 80% saber block in this latest go 'round. It feels better on test, though I've only spent like 20 minutes testing the new set so far.

[RIPGorath]

Moved a musty bunker from naboo, placed on lok, re-packed, placed on dant, all worked ok. Only minor thing is that when I go outside from being inside now I'll fall thru the door frame and be under the ramp, if i keep going i'll end up back on the bottom of the ramp like normal, but if i stop i can move freely under the entire above ground part of the structure on ground level.

[Tyclo]

Moved a musty bunker from naboo, placed on lok, re-packed, placed on dant, all worked ok. Only minor thing is that when I go outside from being inside now I'll fall thru the door frame and be under the ramp, if i keep going i'll end up back on the bottom of the ramp like normal, but if i stop i can move freely under the entire above ground part of the structure on ground level.

Thanks for the report. This seems to be a strange side effect of deploying a packed up structure. It resolves itself after a server restart but you fall through the entrance until then.

It make not be fixed in time for the 1.3 release, but I'll add it to the bugs notes.

[srami]

Moved a musty bunker from naboo, placed on lok, re-packed, placed on dant, all worked ok. Only minor thing is that when I go outside from being inside now I'll fall thru the door frame and be under the ramp, if i keep going i'll end up back on the bottom of the ramp like normal, but if i stop i can move freely under the entire above ground part of the structure on ground level.

Thanks for the report. This seems to be a strange side effect of deploying a packed up structure. It resolves itself after a server restart but you fall through the entrance until then.

It make not be fixed in time for the 1.3 release, but I'll add it to the bugs notes.

What a the time scale on the 1.3 release to live?

[Tyclo]

What a the time scale on the 1.3 release to live?

It's close to being finished, but we don't have an exact date.

We intended to have things live sooner, but given the scale of the systems implemented and that the past few weeks have been fairly busy/difficult for most of the team given the COVID-19 situation, we have no exact ETA.

We will give a heads up once things are ready, but we are still working out some edge cases and finishing up some aspects of the patch.

[alancode]

Btw it still says 85% on the skill, that’s what I was referring to.

[RIPGorath]

Is upping the duration on enhancer resists line to 30 mins out of line? Just to match the 30 min timer of FA2 and FS2?

[Skyyr]

May I ask some questions and suggest some changes?


1. AFK Bounty Modifications

So far, from what I've seen, bounties can be afk inside of a guild hall, but go on the roof portion that is still considered "outside." Unless something has changed ultra-recently, this roof portion is considered "outdoors" and therefore does not prevent them from showing up on the terminals. Combined with the proposed changes, this would be exploitable, as a bounty could go AFK and be unreachable during the time they are there, yet still show up as active on the terminal. If their mission is pulled, then there's no way to engage the target, the bounty timer limit for the target would then be set @ 20-24 hours. This would make this approach preferable for all bounties (be AFK, but on top of a guild hall) so that their mission is pulled and the timer set during the day, preventing most players from hunting them when they are actually at the keyboard.

This has extremely serious potential for exploit, as a not-insignificant portion of player bounties on live currently do this, even without the hunting time limits in place. To be clear, this is the logical thing for all bounties (Jedi and non-Jedi) to do, if they don't want to be hunted after 1.3 goes live.

If I'm mistaken here and the Jedi simply moved after I pulled the mission, I apologize.


2. Bounty Timers - Hunting Limits

Are the current timers set at 20 or 24 hours? I believe I saw 24 hours in the notes and haven't seen it changed since. Could those be modified to 20 (similar to the Acklay instance) so that there is not a constant daily "drift" of the time window? Given the smaller number of active bounties here, I feel this is a practical but functional improvement.

For example, if I log on at 8PM and I pull a bounty at 9PM for a player, then I cannot pull the next mission for that same player until 9PM the next day. If I then pull the same player at 9:15 - 9:30 PM the next day (because most players are not going to be waiting at precisely 9:01PM to look for a mission the next day), then that sets the new 24 hour clock. This causes a "drift" in timers where you end up having every 3rd or 4th day largely being unusable/unplayable (due to the fact most of us have set gaming hours), whereas a 20-hour limit would not. Again, on live servers this would likely have not been an issue; however, with only ~10-20 active bounty players, this exacerbates the issue.


3. Bounty Mission Expiration - Time Increase

I'm proposing a change here due to behavior currently on live (and I can provide numerous streams of in-game play to back this up). Currently, when you pull a Jedi mission, there are two basic kinds of players: 1) those that will fight and 2) those that will not. The former are not an issue, so let's focus on the latter.

Right now, those that do not want to fight will run away, wait out the TEF, and go inside a structure, usually to either rebuff or go AFK. Given that most fights occur somewhere around the middle of a buff session, this behooves the Jedi even further to run back to a structure and rebuff.

I believe with the changes from 1.3, that your goal is to both boost Jedi strength and remove ability to abuse the BH system, while at the same time improve the experience of the missions that do occur. From a Game Theory perspective, you typically want to make it so that fighting the BH is preferable to running. Currently, there is no downside to running and going AFK, when the max time you would have to "wait out" the BH is less than a full buff session. In other words, if you're hunted, simply run back to your private structure and sit out the rest of your buffs - the mission will likely be terminated by the time (or soon after)... and you're free to resume playing without being hunted. In my opinion, this destroys a core mechanic of Jedi needing to be aware of bounty hunters.

Even ignoring the above, a more innocent occurrence is the natural dropping of buffs. Most players (myself included) will go AFK after finishing a buff session, from anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours. If a Jedi's mission is pulled right at the end of a buff session, then most Jedi would run simply due to their soon-expiring buffs. Again, a break/resting session is indeed normal after this. If the player knows a BH has their mission, then it's simply pragmatic to log off and wait out the next 1-2 hours.

My recommendation would be to increase the timer to 6 hours. This makes the window large enough that a player cannot assume that a mission has been dropped after a relatively short amount of time, while being not so long that a player must wait the entire day for a mission to expire. It also makes it to where it's advantageous for the BH to "stalk" the mark by giving them room to assume the mission has been dropped.


4. Usable Points After Dropping FS Skills

This is not in the patch notes, but given both the 1) damage increase to Jedi and 2) the reduction of BH's taking missions, I feel this needs to at least be brought up. Currently, Jedi can drop their FS skills via a quest. This is a great improvement to Jedi from live, as the FS skills (in most cases) did little to nothing to improve a Jedi's combat ability. However, many Jedi are using these gained points to pick up non-Jedi skills, such as marksman (for the use of dot weapons, e.g. spraysticks) or, more commonly, novice brawler to spam intimidate and warcry with.

While I have no issues with dabbling, I feel the problem here is that the additional points regained from FS skills break the original intention and balance of Jedi. To be clear: I'm only talking about the dropping of FS skills, not Jedi picking up brawler. If a Jedi with FS skills wants to pick up brawler, then by all means, go for it. They're limited to the same 226 points they were before. However, if a Jedi drops FS skills and regains that 24 Skill Points, then I feel those should be forced into Jedi-only skill points - both from a gameplay balance issue, as well as storyline (the entire point is that you're using knowledge of the force to learn further and free up skills that a natural person/player could not).

Currently, it's being used as a get-out-of-jail card, as all a Jedi has to do is spam brawler intimidate and FR1 away. The intimidate in most cases is enough to cut damage so that only the luckiest of back-to-back max-damage hits would incap them (and even that is rare). Intimidate itself is not the problem, it's the use of a force-cost free intimidate.

[Blazer2093]

1. complaint about jedi can get an advantage in a system that bh´s and both gcw factions exploit since month´s -- but should get fixed^^ sitting ontop of a house isnt rly outside, indeed
2. complaint about jedi can get an advantage in a system that bh´s and both gcw factions exploit since month´s
3. complaint about jedi can get an advantage in a system that bh´s and both gcw factions exploit since month´s
4. this is alrdy live for quite some time and the balance is still on the wrong side of things due to multiple bh´s hunting you always never just 1


additionaly stop trying to argue with "suposed to be" / "was on live different " and all that nonsense this isnt live and if you wanna talk supposed to be .. theres no reason a bh should hold up in a 1v1 in a Star wars Supposed to be szenario .. but this a private custom server so deal with it and stop crying about the bounty hunting system gettn a deserved nerf just becouse its your main ... developers have a good reason for the changes as they are comming

bottom line stop crying about having your main nerfed man .... there are enough targets to hunt

[Skyyr]

1. complaint about jedi can get an advantage in a system that bh´s and both gcw factions exploit since month´s -- but should get fixed^^ sitting ontop of a house isnt rly outside, indeed
2. complaint about jedi can get an advantage in a system that bh´s and both gcw factions exploit since month´s
3. complaint about jedi can get an advantage in a system that bh´s and both gcw factions exploit since month´s
4. this is alrdy live for quite some time and the balance is still on the wrong side of things due to multiple bh´s hunting you always never just 1


additionaly stop trying to argue with "suposed to be" / "was on live different " and all that nonsense this isnt live and if you wanna talk supposed to be .. theres no reason a bh should hold up in a 1v1 in a Star wars Supposed to be szenario .. but this a private custom server so deal with it and stop crying about the bounty hunting system gettn a deserved nerf just becouse its your main ... developers have a good reason for the changes as they are comming

bottom line stop crying about having your main nerfed man .... there are enough targets to hunt

In response:

1. Your response is patently false. The current system doesn't have a 24-timer for taking a mission with a 3-hour mission expiration, so this is a non-issue on live. It only becomes an issue when combined with the new changes. What exactly is your point?
2. Your response is patently false. The current system doesn't have a 24-hour timer for hunting a Jedi, so this is a current non-issue. It only becomes an issue when combined with the new changes. What exactly is your point?
3. Your response is patently false. The current system doesn't have a 3-hour mission expiration, so current behavior is a non-issue. It only becomes an issue when combined with the new changes. What exactly is your point?
4. If you are getting beaten by a single BH and using this set up, you've set up your template wrong; but, that's not the focus here. The focus is the imbalance and illogical approach of allowing a Jedi more skill points, then allowing them to invest them in non-Jedi skills that cost no force. The issue is not novice brawler; the issue is freeing up of force-sensitive skill points and then putting them into non-force-sensitive skills. This is pretty much contradictory to even the mission narrative you undertake to free up the points.

Also, at no point did I suggest a BH should be able to stand 1v1 with a Jedi, so why did you even bring that up? I'm curious why you would throw out an incoherent response based around something I never claimed to begin with.