| Reg LeCrisp 2005-03-30, 8:43 pm |
| During the Combat Upgrade we are making many changes to the HAM (Health,
Action, Mind) bar and other important elements of the game interface that
are specifically associated with combat. In addition to the HAM bar, we will
focus on the changes to the combat queue, the toolbar, toolbar icons, the
character sheet, and the new three-phase execution for combat encounters
with some (but not all) special maneuvers.
a.. The Health-Action-Mind bar is the three colored bar that all players,
NPCs and creatures have that visually keeps track of these three important
character statistics.
a.. The Toolbar is a player's customizable interface at the top of the
screen that control character actions and the Toolbar Icons are the
individual buttons any player can use to customize this interface (located
in the CTRL-A window).
a.. The Character Sheet is the picture of a player's character that displays
what type of clothes or armor they have on, the weapons they are carrying
and general appearance.
a.. The Three Phase Execution is a new element to combat that has been added
to make combat decisions more tactical by bringing "wind-ups" and
"cool-downs" to some combat maneuvers.
Playing the Interface
Removal of the Combat Queue and New Toolbar Functionality
We are removing the visual clutter and the ability to spam combat moves to
keep players more involved in combat as it happens. This allows you to
actively make intelligent combat choices to improve your chances of winning
a battle. In addition to these changes, some special maneuvers will now have
"wind-up" and "cool-down" phases in combat (these are explained further
below). Combat Icons are now larger and have been dramatically improved and
there is a new way to display buffs.
a.. Players can have two moves - their current move and their next move.
a.. A player's "next move" will be visible on the toolbar by a yellow
outline around the icon of that special ability.
a.. New Toolbar Icons
a.. The new toolbar icons will be full color
a.. The new icons will have a strong visual relationship to the move they
represent
a.. New Toolbar Icon Functionality
a.. Icons will represent the different stages of executing a combat move.
a.. When you press an action the windup phase begins, and the icon you
have pressed flashes.
a.. Some moves will have a timer, the icon will go "dark" and stay that
way until usable again
a.. The re-use timer of the ability will show visually on the icon with
a dark transparency that gradually goes away as the wait time decreases
a.. Actions with timers will have a "zip bar" that will appear below the
toolbar icon display
a.. If you select an action that you do not have enough points to execute
the icon will still get the "next action" yellow outline and the associated
pool will also get an outline indicating the level of action or mind needed.
Once there is enough points the action will execute.
HAM Window Changes
The HAM window is the small window in the upper left hand of the screen that
displays your character's information. In addition to the three HAM bars,
players will have some new information in both the personal and group HAM
windows.
a.. The health of your character is now displayed with one bar
a.. Action and Mind bars are still present, but now these represent how many
Action and Mind points you can use on special maneuvers in combat
a.. These points are drained from the pools when using an ability. Some
abilities and specials will require Action, some will require Mind and some
will require both Action and Mind.
a.. All of the drain and regeneration stats have been simplified to, "Health
recharge Rate"
a.. Stat migration has been removed from the game.
a.. All NPC (Non Player Characters) and creature HAM bars (other than those
of pets) now have health bars only in their displayed HAM.
a.. A new Role icon on the left side of the ham
a.. Allows players to see which role a group member is playing (Doctor,
Pistoleer, TKA, etc)
a.. If you can play multiple roles you can select the one to display.
a.. On the right side of the group member HAM UI is an indicator
representing direction and distance to that player character
a.. Players will be able to see all buffs and de-buffs that party members
have by expanding a new buff window.
a.. Characters engaged in combat will have their HAM window outlined in
red.
Character Sheet
The Character Sheet (CTRL-C) will reflect the updates to the character
statistics in the new combat system. The character sheet will be the place
players can go to see the total affect both skills and equipment have on
character stats.
Particle Effects
Weapons and special moves will now have exciting particle effects so that
players can make combat decisions on the fly. You'll be able to tell when
another player is about to fire certain weapon or execute a specific move.
Wind-Ups and Cool-Downs
One of the most interesting and exciting changes to the combat system is the
addition of Wind-Ups and Cool-Downs. Combined with the changes to the HAM
bar and Action/Mind pool points, Galaxies' combat is genuinely being taken
to a new level. Special actions are more interactive and now include a "3
phase" execution: Wind-up, Execution, and Cool-down - - combat choices will
matter much more based on a player's position in combat, how much time they
have to execute powerful maneuvers and how a player manages their special
actions against their Action and Mind special ability pools. The length of
each phase is effected by the ability used, the character's advancement
level and associated buffs on the character.
Wind-Up
The windup phase is the time between when the user performs an action to
begin a special move to when the move actually takes effect.
a.. When using an action with a wind-up there will be the visual UI element,
as well as particle effects and/or animation and sound effects to indicate
the user is beginning a special action.
a.. Not all actions have wind-up but those that do will be canceled if the
player moves.
Execution
The execution phase is the time the special action requires to carry out the
combat action. It is determined by the specific action chosen, the type of
weapon the character has equipped and any associated buffs / de-buffs on the
character.
a.. The execution time is visualized by disabling all other special action
icons.
Cool-Down
The cool-down phase is the time after the action is performed when that
action cannot be executed again.
a.. All actions belong to a "cool-down group".
a.. Actions which share the same cool-down group cannot be executed until
the cool-down timer expires.
a.. Cool-down is visualized by disabling all icons in the same cool-down
group. No sound effect or animation is associated with cool-down since the
player will be doing other things.
While an action is cooling down, the user may begin actions that are in
different cool-down groups.These changes come together to make combat in
Star Wars Galaxies more engaging, faster paced and more visually exciting.
We hope that when you try it out you will have fun and enjoy the new
experience!
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