Weekly Devblog #1
So this is the first of many weekly devblogs. This devblog will be going over SOME OF what has been done over the past couple months.As many of you may have articulated/heard, the server will be coming back while we continue work on the new project. This new iteration will have LOTS of new content, some of which will be discussed today here in this devblog.
Complete Overhaul to Amplifiers
- Amplifiers have been renamed and completely reworked into something we're calling Augments. Augments now have an armor value from 1 to 150. Depending on your armor value you will get more or less buffs. These buffs will not directly impact your stats, but instead will have literal changes to your actions. EX. light attack buff will increase light attack damage by 5%. There is a lot more to this that will be revealed over time as there is still plenty of development work to do on these, however the core of the system is done.
- Augmentations have been fully fleshed out in terms of equipping, unequipping, trading, dropping, etc. The buffs will stay networked no matter the action that is taken upon them.
- There are multiple different buffs for each type of Augment you can craft. Crafting an Augment will give you 1 buff from the guaranteed pool of that augment. Say you craft the "Reflex Core" which is meant to be parry based. You will get 1 buff that is parry-based, then it will pull up to 2 more buffs depending on your Armor Value.
- Some more examples of different buffs that could given are Temporary Life Drain after a kill, Increased Movement Speed, Jump Height, Light/Heavy Attack Damage, Force Range Increase, Ability Cooldown Decrease, etc.
- When granted a buff upon crafting, these buffs will have % values assigned to them depending on your Armor Value (AV)
UI Overhaul
- Almost every interface you have interacted with has either been tweaked or completely changed, along with new ones for new systems that I will get into later. Most noteable, the lightsaber crafting workbench. I have been taking a lot of time working on new UIs, while some have stayed more or less the same, a lot of the bugs we used to run into have been patched. Think of these as QoL fixes.
Companion System
- Ever wanted your own personal droid following you around giving you different buffs? Do you miss the old personal holocrons? This is the fix we've been looking for. I have now made a system that will allow you to select different companions and bind a key that will cause them to do different actions. Some give you a slight speed increase, others give you passive buffs, the options vary drastically to each companion. After use, each companion will have a differing cooldown. This is shown in the visual indicator for them.
Trooper Classes
- Troopers are returning! Now with their own class system that will allow you to create a custom class depending on the guns you have unlocked. Gone are the days of troopers having their own personal arsenal of every single weapon in the game. Now you will be locked to one Primary, Secondary, Lethal Grenade, and Tactical Ability. This will address a lot of the pain points with troopers previously while still giving them a new gameplay loop.
Ranked Dueling System
- This is something I have wanted for a LONG time. Me being a big dueling fan, I've always dreamed of being able to have a system in place where you can view a leaderboard and receive titles for your abilities as a duelist or force user. I have made an MMR system that will keep track of the differing rank disparities. This is to prevent any sort of "farming", the higher the gap between you and your opponent, the more/less your MMR will move. If you defeat a significantly weaker opponent, do not expect to gain much MMR. However, if you beat a significantly stronger opponent. Expect to see your MMR skyrocket.
World Bosses
- A big pain point near the end of last iteration is we didn't spend enough time actually modifying the world bosses to fit. Our NPC base "VJ Base" had updated and I had to scramble to get them working for the new update. This resulted in a very poor experience. Now, a new developer I have been training was tasked to work on the world bosses and remove things like their egregious knockback and ridiculous screenshake.
Lightning Quests
- Lightning Quests are a new feature that will have multiple daily challenges for you to complete. These challenges are meant to give a meaningful way to level up, without the need to mindlessly grind mobs or quests.
3rd Party Factions
- The return of 3rd party factions is here. You can now roleplay as a Civilian, Bounty Hunter/Mercenary, etc. There will be plenty of options to choose from.
- This list will increase post-launch with the addition of Eternal Empire.
