In Concept - The Galactic Civil WarFollow

To balance the Galactic Civil War, one must first balance Star Wars Galaxies - a game with so much potential it smacks me in the face every time I see it. Keep in mind that Game Balance should always come before any other aspect of an MMORPG - this includes "Role Playing," customization, and "neat" ideas.



Factions

First, one must implement a third faction, the Black Sun (I believe that is what it was called in Shadows of the Empire). Though never overtly seen throughout the films, the criminal syndicate is there. Having a third faction would help balance servers that are either too many Rebels or too many Imperials. The Imperials will always be at war with the Rebels and the Black Sun, Rebels vs. Imps and Black Sun, and Black Sun vs. Rebels and Imps. From a Role-Playing vantage point, the Black Sun wants the war to continue, for if it does they can rake in millions of credits through illegal arms smuggling and the ilk. So if they are at the top on a server, it means they are basically playing the Rebels and Imperials like puppets for their own gain.

Players should also choose their Factions at the point of character creation, and only after many trials will they be able to switch to another faction if they so choose. Faction Points should remain, and should be awarded to players for finishing missions from your Faction as well as killing any players of an opposing faction.



Tradeskills and the Economy

Tradeskills will always fail if a class solely devoted to Tradeskills exists. This is due to players being unable to defend themselves while searching for materials, and also due to players eventually growing bored of Tradeskilling. Tradeskills should therefore be held seperate from Classes as Skills, and have an independent rate of growth from them.

Also, by making Tradeskills into skills, and not classes, you open the door for more players to become interested in Tradeskilling. This will help break any monopolies held by Tradeskill Only classes. Another good way to promote Tradeskilling is to limit a players Inventory capabilities. If a player cannot horde every item, then they will be forced to sell, drop, or Tradeskill with the item to make room in their inventory.

To help balance the economy, the game can implement many Credit burning Money Sinks. For example, Players can have the ability to customize and build Pod Racers, then enter the Racer into a race for an amount of Credits. Pod Racers are only usable in Pod Races, and not for travel. Winning Players can be awarded with Points that can be spent at the Pod Race Track for valuable items that cannot be traded or sold. The Pod Races would be fun and addicting, and offer great items for players as incentive for playing. Racers can also ante Credit vs. each other so Credit earning is a possibility, but only for the best racers. Very little Credits are earned from this game, but as long as its fun players will play and spend their credits. And if they spend their credits, they will have to go tradeskill to earn some more.



Parties and Grouping

Players should be able to form Units of up to 6 players, and then form Raids up to 36 players. The current high number of players to form a single party makes it daunting to try and find a small group of players to group with. Think about it this way - With the exception of ObiWan, the Millenium Falcon had a Unit of 6 - Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, Artoo, and Threepio. They could then join up with the Rebel Alliance for a Raid. But they were still effective on their own.



Experience and "Leveling"

Classes and Tradeskills should have "Levels" added to them. This will help balance PVP combat, which should be at the heart of the GCW. It will keep players from killing players too low level for them, and keep low level players from trying to kill the big guys, subsequently annoying them and leading back to the former reason for levels in PVP.



PVP as XP Combat

PVP should be the big way players earn experience in SWG. PVP should remain Faction vs. Faction vs. Faction (this includes the Black Sun). Players can not kill players of their own Faction. Also, there should be a way to measure the Galactic Civil War on each server. This way if one faction gains to strong of a footing in the Galaxy, the other two factions will ally with each other to take the big one down.

Players at any point can turn on a switch that will Flag them for PVP combat. They can only turn this Flag off once they are out of combat. Or perhaps they can talk to an NPC to be flagged for PVP combat for a set amount of time.

Certain Faction based Missions and Quests can also require your PVP Flag to be on to complete the Mission/Quest. This would mean players would have to band together to watch each others backs, because players of Opposing Factions may want to stop that quest from being fulfilled.

To cancel out Overkill PKing, Players will need to be within a certain number of levels (1-2 at most) of each other to be able to PVP. Also, in group vs. group PVP, only two groups can ever duke it out with each other. Any other groups wanting to join in cannot until a winner has been declared in the first PVP group combat.

Experience can still be gathered from the traditional PVE gameplay, but it would not be as much, nor as rewarding (you would also get Faction Points in PVP combat.)



Professions and Tradeskills

At the character creation screen, after a character is created, a player has only 3 choices for Professions. These three would be Brawler (Melee Archtype), Marksman (Ranged Combat Archtype), and Scout (Support Archtype).

A player must choose a Primary Archtype, and a Secondary Archtype. A player can then only learn the Professions of these two archtypes, the third will be alien to them. Professions from the Secondary Archtype will never be as powerful as the Primary, but will supplement nicely. A player could create a Melee/Ranged for a Soldier type character, a Support/Ranged to be a Medic or Slicer with Ranged combat abilities, and so on and so forth.

--The Melee Archtype

The archtype of warriors and frontline fighters throughout the galaxy. These sturdy professionals are meant to get in close and get the job done.

Brawler - learns the basic modes of fighting hand to hand and with Melee weapons.

Fencer - Skilled in the realm of one handed swordsmanship

Swordsman - Skilled in the realm of Two handed Swords and heavier weapons

Pikeman - Skilled with various forms of Pikes, lances, and polearms.

Teras Kasi - learned in the killing arts of Hand to hand combat. Uses the body itself as a weapon.



--The Ranged Archtype

Attacking from a distance, they rely less on physical prowess and more on distance. As such, they are not as strong or sturdy as a melee combatant.

Marksman - learned in various ranged weapons combat.

Pistoleer - learned in short range blaster combat. Fast hit rate but low damage. Can dual wield pistols for greater effect.

Carbineer - Skilled in medium range firearms. Can burst shot multiple players at once for less damage, or precision shoot a single player for more damage.

Rifleman - Snipers and Assassins of the game. Deal great damage from a distance, but can be easily defeated if discovered and put into short range combat. Also has a slow rate of fire.

Commando - master of the heavier ranged weapons of the game. Has a slow rate of fire.



--The Support Archtype

Not versed in the realm of combat, but designed more to supplement the combat archtypes. If chosen as a Primary Archtype, the character will see very little frontline combat.

Scout - learned in the ways of the wilderness, can track animals and forage, as well as heal the minds and bodies of Comrades.

Slicer - A sneaky thief who can steal from enemies, slice weapons and computer terminals for personal gain, and can create various forms of narcotics for use as buffs.

Entertainer - skilled in the arts of song and dance, Entertainers help reduce Battle Fatigue and keep the combat spirits of a Unit up.

Medic - a master of the healing arts. Uses various medical techniques, as well as medicines made through Bio-Engineering to help heal the mortal wounds of comrades.

Creature Handler - trainer of animals and aliens from throughout the Galaxy. Uses different animals for different purposes - tracking, foraging, as mountable steeds, and combat. Creatures can not excede certain sizes when in captivity, and cannot be sold to other players.



--Bounty Hunting

Should not be handled as a class, but instead as an aspect of the PVP gameplay of SWG. As players participate in the Galactic Civil War, they begin to earn more recognition from all sides of the battle. Eventually, if a players accumulates enough hate from an opposing side, the game will place a bounty on that characters head. Any player can then accept a mssion to attempt to retrieve the bounty, and if successful, will be rewarded the Credits earned for the kill. Only people who accept the Bounty mission can PK the Bountyhead. If a player can go long periods without being PKed for a Bounty, and they "lay low" from the GCW, the bounty will begin to lower and eventually disperse. The timing on the Bounty is only active when a player is Online, so a player can't just sign off and wait for the bounty to disperse.

--Squad Leadership

Also should not be able to handled as a class, but more as a Quasi-Tradeskill. Any player can earn leadership XP, as long as they are the leader of a Unit or Raid. As a player's group wins more group vs. group PVP combats he earns more Leadership XP, which will grant him different group related abilities.

--Politics

Another Profession turned Quasi-Tradeskill. Any player who helps run a city as an Elected Official can earn Political XP, in proportion to how well the whole city is doing/how well his aspect of the city is doing.

--Image Designer

Should be handled by in game NPC's instead of as a Profession or Tradeskill. Credit costs form the Image Design should be in proportion to the degree a change being made to a PC.

--Tradeskills

Every player starts with the jack of all trades Artisan Tradeskill. As a player gains tradeskill XP they can upgrade to the more refined tradeskills. A player does NOT need to switch professions to earn tradeskill XP. They are to be considered seperate from Professions.

Architect - Specializes in the contruction of homes, buildings and furniture.

Armorsmith - Specializes in higher quality armor for various forms of combat.

Bio Engineer - Creates Medical equipment for Medics to use, and creates feed and genetic supplements to help augment both players and Creature Handler pets for short periods of time.

Chef - Creates many different foods with varying effects on the player.

Droid Designer - Manufactures droids for various uses.

Tailor - Creates various garments for formal, casual, or working occasions. Certain Professions work better in Tailored clothing then crafted Armor.

Weaponsmith - creates the and upgrades many weapons for various combat, from Blasters to Swords.



Battlegrounds

A storyline should be designed for players to follow as they progress through the universe of SWG. Incorporated into these should be giant Battleground battles that are required to pass to the next portion of the storyline, akin to classic "Boss Battles." Storyline battle will be PVE, to be sure, but this will effectively "herd" players into areas where they can combat and talk with like-level players. These battle should require no less than a group of 6 to be played, but no higher than a raid of 32. Battlegrounds should be handled as "Most kills over a Period of Time" to determine the winner, unless a Storyline quest states otherwise (capture the flag type, etc.)

Death Penalties

Should be handled like EQOA's Experience Debt. Corpse retrieval should be done away with, as well as credit loss. Item insurance should be done away with, and Cloning should be free. Basically, dying is hard enough as it is, and it seems there are just way to many penalties involved. Also, SWG is just a game, and there shouldn't be this huge punishment involved for dying.

Dying in PVP combat is a strange creature. Basically to undercut cheating and overkill PKing at spawn points, players should respawn at their Cloning Points with their PVP Flag off. In a Battleground setting, players can have spawn points at the edge of the battle. This would simply help with travel times. They would still need to have their PVP flag switched to on to rejoin the battle.

Item Degradation

Item Degredation is a necesary evil in a Skill Based MMORPG. However, if Professions are switched to level based/Archtypes, then Items can be upgraded through level restricitions, and can drop the Degradation side of the item.