Helasar
Project Trial Mod
Alright, so I've been playing Jedi on PR for a hot minute. I've returned from a hiatus that lasted just about a year and now I'm back to my Quarren space-wizardry. Now, here's where my issue comes into play. Jedi are completely unstructured and have really nothing going for them as of now, and I fully believe everyone's happiness would significantly improve if some updates were to roll out for us.
I thoroughly enjoy playing a Jedi on Star Wars RP servers. I'd go so far to say that I distaste playing as a trooper, which is evident in me only playing Jedi. Like literally, I will not hop onto my trooper character at all. So, I'm going to make a little ol' list here of some issues that I've come across in my few weeks of being back and shedding some light on some stuff. I'll have a list of pro's and con's, since there are some benefits to what we have now versus what we had previously.
- Jedi are completely and utterly unstructured.
I was a Knight before the entire hard reset for all Jedi thing rolled out. To be perfectly honest, I enjoy the progression in having the reset. I also enjoy seeing the roster of people who actually play Jedi come out of the works and continue roleplaying as a Jedi whenever things dive into the dumpster. The reset also decreased the amount of Jedi playing, leading to Jedi becoming more prominent in the spotlight, and the good ones becoming a valuable asset. Now, with EVERYONE being an initiate, there is no structure or ranking to anything.
Through sheer willpower, determination, and painful grinding, I've reached prestige 1 and begged Riddick for any kind of reward for my accomplishments. This led to myself getting a different crystal and being promoted to Padawan. Now, I am the only one who ISN'T an Initiate....making me, the Ascended One of the Jedi, the highest ranking Jedi on the entirety of the server (minus Riddick hopping on Mace Windu once every year or whatever.) The sole Councilman, Flare, is also an initiate with the rest of them, meaning I outrank him now. How to fix this? Set clear rewards and progress levels on how to rank up and get people working towards goals to achieve success. Which leads me to the next point...
- There isn't a clear reward or progression system.
I achieved the rank of Padawan from, realistically, happenstance. I meditated long and hard enough to actually be able to prestige in the leveling system. Then I shared some screenshots of me being max level and prestiging and asking Riddick if I could get the reward of a green crystal and the rank of Padawan from my accomplishments. And as I asked, I received.
This promotion was a big milestone for the rest of the Jedi. I am the first person to actually be progressed from Initiate in a point where the state of the Jedi is the most unstable. Multiple people have been following in my footsteps and my strategies in hopes of getting the same rewards that I have acquired once I prestiged. There needs to be a baseline system on how to rank up (at least to Padawan) put into place and figure out how we want everything to happen.
- Roleplaying and Gameplay aspects
So, like I've stated previously, I strictly play Jedi. I do not like playing as the casual trooper. As it stands, there are absolutely zero stable opportunities of roleplaying as a Jedi opposed to what any generic trooper can do. The only reason I've been able to slide into roleplay stuff as Jedi is because I put my foot in the door and slid into the scenarios. Jedi who actually roleplay using mind tricks, force healing, et cetera should be rewarded and stand out from the rest of the Jedi who just play as a front-line bullet sponge for $40 who die repeatedly in the way of everyone else. If you watch how I play Jedi, and how I've always played Jedi, I tend to stick in the backlines and work as a support. If I'm not in the backlines, I take up defense in the front and just use force abilities to knock enemies around. Why? Because I'm a simple Consular just trynna make a living.
The lightsabers are another big issue that also put a damper on roleplay. On multiple occasions with BX OPFOR's and the such, you can ask Kowalski from a very recent event, the Jedi gathered on a "task force" to hunt down some sniper BX's. Problem is, we can't do a single thing to combat them. Every time I caught up with an OPFOR with a sneaky flank, I'd just wave my lightsaber at them and say, "If my lightsaber did damage, you'd have been dead by now." and pray that they respect it and slay themselves. There is, however, a single, albeit, LARGE bonus to the zero-damage lightsabers. They don't harm troopers. Long over are the days of accidental deaths of healing somebody with the lightsaber ignited and they run into it, killing themselves.
My style of gameplay is extremely suited to trying to roleplay out the aspects of being a Jedi as opposed to running around and being the front line. Before I had my year hiatus, I was on the Council and led the Medical branch of the Consulars. I thoroughly enjoyed just roleplaying all the technicalities of using the Force and being a Jedi. I just want more activities that can relate to Jedi and all that. I do appreciate the makeshift inmate interrogations and side-quests that I've been involved in because at least I get to try and do something depending on how well I roll.
- Rolling for Results
The /roll system to determine success works pretty well. Jedi, however, things can get really aggravating. If anyone has seen me roll for RP scenarios, chances are you saw me roll a 30 or lower. I can not for the life of me get a roll higher than 50 whenever I try to roleplay something out, primarily with mind tricks. It's a prevalent turn-off for me whenever I actively try roleplaying something out, only to fail on something that should be relatively simple to pull off. I'm sure this translates the same for all the troopers as well, so probably not just a Jedi problem. At least give me a +10 or +20 bonus to rolls on doing simple tasks that would be arguably easy for a Jedi to pull off.
- Jedi Mindset
So, I've seen as of recently that some of the Jedi don't really roleplay anything out and just have the straight trooper mindset of "run around, eliminate the threat." I fully believe that this mindset is out of place as a whole and Jedi should be more reserved in thinking and roleplay oriented. I don't really have a big paragraph for this once, just I really don't like seeing some certain Jedi in particular run out into a big crowd and get instantly gunned down, then repeat the process and never learn from their actions or their mistakes. Punish those who fail to roleplay or demonstrate the basic concepts of Jedi and who are just there for the laser sword and can be edgy or whatever.
- Force Powers and Skill Points
Gaining skill points through every 5 levels of meditation is a bigger grind than most MMO's have for grinds. It has encouraged the "afk farm," in which you afk for long periods of time while in meditation and just level up. If this is going to be the current way to progress to Padawan, this is god-awful. It encourages people to just peace out for playing on the server and afk their way through the ranks. Skill Points should be given out through roleplaying and actually being good at being a Jedi. Maybe make it so that you get skill points from commendations?
Now, with force powers. The skill trees are very basic, which I'll assume is from the lack of full development on Jedi. All we have in terms of powers are Push and Pull. No healing, no shield, nothing else. Just push and pull. Now once you get all the skills from the Stalwart and Blade trees (4 skills each), they provide a pretty good increase to character power. The probably is, and I know from actually looking at it and having the points, is that you can't afford the majority of the normal upgrades with the amount of skill points you get by the time you hit max level. You can get the 8 basic stuff from the two trees and then like 3 health upgrades and that's it. The max lightsaber damage is 130 when the basic enemies have 150 health, and there aren't any lightsaber forms available for purchase. I recall the times where I'd just run around using versatile and having fun instead of being forced to use the most basic form, "Aggressive" and being stuck with it. Also, the aggressive heavy hitbox is messed up, it actually hits directly behind you and not whatever you are thrusting the lightsaber into.
What I would REALLY enjoy seeing come out of this is a tree for "Force damage." and force pool upgrades. Lightsaber damage is cool and all, but I'm playing a Consular. I want to push droids around and destroy them by impact damage on a wall or something. Also, if there was a force power with an animation to pick up debris/rocks or whatever and chuck them at your target for a large amount of damage, I'd instantly cream on the spot.
- Regimental Jedi and Commanders
Alongside the lack of structure, is the lack of our regimental affiliations or leadership positions. So far, I've been keeping it as I usually do and affiliate with the 414th. Most commonly you'll see me in their lines and formations for briefings and events. It would be nice, at least when people start getting Padawan, to be able to officially affiliate with a battalion once more.
Now for "Leadership positions" as Jedi. I would like to see Commanders and Generals make a return for whenever we start catching ranks and getting affiliated in whatever chosen regiments. I was one of like 2-3 Jedi who passed through Fudall's Jedi General course and earned the privilege of calling myself a Jedi General and leading troopers as a Field Marshal. Padawans should be able to go through LCS whenever it starts getting hosted again and get to be able to lead events as the FM/SM to enhance that route of roleplaying. It would also keep Jedi off the direct front-line and being the classic $40 dead bullet sponges and actually have to sit back and evaluate the battleground from a leading perspective. Also give back General pls
- Jedi Acrobatics and Animations
I hate leaving something on a bad note, so here is by far the biggest "pro" out of my essay. Riddick and Evan have put a huge amount of effort into the acrobatics system and the special NPC animations and it shows big time. There is nothing I love more than keeping up with a trooper in Special Forces by parkouring my way up a wall and jumping around roof tops. This is actually a good aspect for the roleplay/gameplay scenarios too, because you can actually keep up with OPFOR and track them down.
I was completely overjoyed whenever I used Force Pull on a jumper b1 and actually pulled it out of the sky for the first time. Then I used Push on a group of b1's and completely toppled them over. This was a huge upgrade from what we had beforehand and I absolutely love it.
- Jedi Balance
Starting off with no skill points, playing Jedi turns into figuring out the best and most creative ways to survive instead of running around with 4000 health like we used to. You die just like a trooper would, and you are punished for being stupid. Now whenever I was max level before prestige, I could be over healed to 600 health and had push/pull as my force abilities to work with. This felt really comfortable to play around with because you have the health to help out your troops better and be a bit more aggressive, but you still have to play smart. One stray rocket can still disorient you and knock you on your ass in a heartbeat. All it takes is a single tri-droid rocket and you go from 600 to immediate death.
Thank you all for listening to my Ted Talk here. This is just the things I've observed from my experimenting around on the server and playing Jedi for a bit. If there are any other gripes, go ahead and put them down on here so I can make note of them too.
I thoroughly enjoy playing a Jedi on Star Wars RP servers. I'd go so far to say that I distaste playing as a trooper, which is evident in me only playing Jedi. Like literally, I will not hop onto my trooper character at all. So, I'm going to make a little ol' list here of some issues that I've come across in my few weeks of being back and shedding some light on some stuff. I'll have a list of pro's and con's, since there are some benefits to what we have now versus what we had previously.
- Jedi are completely and utterly unstructured.
I was a Knight before the entire hard reset for all Jedi thing rolled out. To be perfectly honest, I enjoy the progression in having the reset. I also enjoy seeing the roster of people who actually play Jedi come out of the works and continue roleplaying as a Jedi whenever things dive into the dumpster. The reset also decreased the amount of Jedi playing, leading to Jedi becoming more prominent in the spotlight, and the good ones becoming a valuable asset. Now, with EVERYONE being an initiate, there is no structure or ranking to anything.
Through sheer willpower, determination, and painful grinding, I've reached prestige 1 and begged Riddick for any kind of reward for my accomplishments. This led to myself getting a different crystal and being promoted to Padawan. Now, I am the only one who ISN'T an Initiate....making me, the Ascended One of the Jedi, the highest ranking Jedi on the entirety of the server (minus Riddick hopping on Mace Windu once every year or whatever.) The sole Councilman, Flare, is also an initiate with the rest of them, meaning I outrank him now. How to fix this? Set clear rewards and progress levels on how to rank up and get people working towards goals to achieve success. Which leads me to the next point...
- There isn't a clear reward or progression system.
I achieved the rank of Padawan from, realistically, happenstance. I meditated long and hard enough to actually be able to prestige in the leveling system. Then I shared some screenshots of me being max level and prestiging and asking Riddick if I could get the reward of a green crystal and the rank of Padawan from my accomplishments. And as I asked, I received.
This promotion was a big milestone for the rest of the Jedi. I am the first person to actually be progressed from Initiate in a point where the state of the Jedi is the most unstable. Multiple people have been following in my footsteps and my strategies in hopes of getting the same rewards that I have acquired once I prestiged. There needs to be a baseline system on how to rank up (at least to Padawan) put into place and figure out how we want everything to happen.
- Roleplaying and Gameplay aspects
So, like I've stated previously, I strictly play Jedi. I do not like playing as the casual trooper. As it stands, there are absolutely zero stable opportunities of roleplaying as a Jedi opposed to what any generic trooper can do. The only reason I've been able to slide into roleplay stuff as Jedi is because I put my foot in the door and slid into the scenarios. Jedi who actually roleplay using mind tricks, force healing, et cetera should be rewarded and stand out from the rest of the Jedi who just play as a front-line bullet sponge for $40 who die repeatedly in the way of everyone else. If you watch how I play Jedi, and how I've always played Jedi, I tend to stick in the backlines and work as a support. If I'm not in the backlines, I take up defense in the front and just use force abilities to knock enemies around. Why? Because I'm a simple Consular just trynna make a living.
The lightsabers are another big issue that also put a damper on roleplay. On multiple occasions with BX OPFOR's and the such, you can ask Kowalski from a very recent event, the Jedi gathered on a "task force" to hunt down some sniper BX's. Problem is, we can't do a single thing to combat them. Every time I caught up with an OPFOR with a sneaky flank, I'd just wave my lightsaber at them and say, "If my lightsaber did damage, you'd have been dead by now." and pray that they respect it and slay themselves. There is, however, a single, albeit, LARGE bonus to the zero-damage lightsabers. They don't harm troopers. Long over are the days of accidental deaths of healing somebody with the lightsaber ignited and they run into it, killing themselves.
My style of gameplay is extremely suited to trying to roleplay out the aspects of being a Jedi as opposed to running around and being the front line. Before I had my year hiatus, I was on the Council and led the Medical branch of the Consulars. I thoroughly enjoyed just roleplaying all the technicalities of using the Force and being a Jedi. I just want more activities that can relate to Jedi and all that. I do appreciate the makeshift inmate interrogations and side-quests that I've been involved in because at least I get to try and do something depending on how well I roll.
- Rolling for Results
The /roll system to determine success works pretty well. Jedi, however, things can get really aggravating. If anyone has seen me roll for RP scenarios, chances are you saw me roll a 30 or lower. I can not for the life of me get a roll higher than 50 whenever I try to roleplay something out, primarily with mind tricks. It's a prevalent turn-off for me whenever I actively try roleplaying something out, only to fail on something that should be relatively simple to pull off. I'm sure this translates the same for all the troopers as well, so probably not just a Jedi problem. At least give me a +10 or +20 bonus to rolls on doing simple tasks that would be arguably easy for a Jedi to pull off.
- Jedi Mindset
So, I've seen as of recently that some of the Jedi don't really roleplay anything out and just have the straight trooper mindset of "run around, eliminate the threat." I fully believe that this mindset is out of place as a whole and Jedi should be more reserved in thinking and roleplay oriented. I don't really have a big paragraph for this once, just I really don't like seeing some certain Jedi in particular run out into a big crowd and get instantly gunned down, then repeat the process and never learn from their actions or their mistakes. Punish those who fail to roleplay or demonstrate the basic concepts of Jedi and who are just there for the laser sword and can be edgy or whatever.
- Force Powers and Skill Points
Gaining skill points through every 5 levels of meditation is a bigger grind than most MMO's have for grinds. It has encouraged the "afk farm," in which you afk for long periods of time while in meditation and just level up. If this is going to be the current way to progress to Padawan, this is god-awful. It encourages people to just peace out for playing on the server and afk their way through the ranks. Skill Points should be given out through roleplaying and actually being good at being a Jedi. Maybe make it so that you get skill points from commendations?
Now, with force powers. The skill trees are very basic, which I'll assume is from the lack of full development on Jedi. All we have in terms of powers are Push and Pull. No healing, no shield, nothing else. Just push and pull. Now once you get all the skills from the Stalwart and Blade trees (4 skills each), they provide a pretty good increase to character power. The probably is, and I know from actually looking at it and having the points, is that you can't afford the majority of the normal upgrades with the amount of skill points you get by the time you hit max level. You can get the 8 basic stuff from the two trees and then like 3 health upgrades and that's it. The max lightsaber damage is 130 when the basic enemies have 150 health, and there aren't any lightsaber forms available for purchase. I recall the times where I'd just run around using versatile and having fun instead of being forced to use the most basic form, "Aggressive" and being stuck with it. Also, the aggressive heavy hitbox is messed up, it actually hits directly behind you and not whatever you are thrusting the lightsaber into.
What I would REALLY enjoy seeing come out of this is a tree for "Force damage." and force pool upgrades. Lightsaber damage is cool and all, but I'm playing a Consular. I want to push droids around and destroy them by impact damage on a wall or something. Also, if there was a force power with an animation to pick up debris/rocks or whatever and chuck them at your target for a large amount of damage, I'd instantly cream on the spot.
- Regimental Jedi and Commanders
Alongside the lack of structure, is the lack of our regimental affiliations or leadership positions. So far, I've been keeping it as I usually do and affiliate with the 414th. Most commonly you'll see me in their lines and formations for briefings and events. It would be nice, at least when people start getting Padawan, to be able to officially affiliate with a battalion once more.
Now for "Leadership positions" as Jedi. I would like to see Commanders and Generals make a return for whenever we start catching ranks and getting affiliated in whatever chosen regiments. I was one of like 2-3 Jedi who passed through Fudall's Jedi General course and earned the privilege of calling myself a Jedi General and leading troopers as a Field Marshal. Padawans should be able to go through LCS whenever it starts getting hosted again and get to be able to lead events as the FM/SM to enhance that route of roleplaying. It would also keep Jedi off the direct front-line and being the classic $40 dead bullet sponges and actually have to sit back and evaluate the battleground from a leading perspective. Also give back General pls
- Jedi Acrobatics and Animations
I hate leaving something on a bad note, so here is by far the biggest "pro" out of my essay. Riddick and Evan have put a huge amount of effort into the acrobatics system and the special NPC animations and it shows big time. There is nothing I love more than keeping up with a trooper in Special Forces by parkouring my way up a wall and jumping around roof tops. This is actually a good aspect for the roleplay/gameplay scenarios too, because you can actually keep up with OPFOR and track them down.
I was completely overjoyed whenever I used Force Pull on a jumper b1 and actually pulled it out of the sky for the first time. Then I used Push on a group of b1's and completely toppled them over. This was a huge upgrade from what we had beforehand and I absolutely love it.
- Jedi Balance
Starting off with no skill points, playing Jedi turns into figuring out the best and most creative ways to survive instead of running around with 4000 health like we used to. You die just like a trooper would, and you are punished for being stupid. Now whenever I was max level before prestige, I could be over healed to 600 health and had push/pull as my force abilities to work with. This felt really comfortable to play around with because you have the health to help out your troops better and be a bit more aggressive, but you still have to play smart. One stray rocket can still disorient you and knock you on your ass in a heartbeat. All it takes is a single tri-droid rocket and you go from 600 to immediate death.
Thank you all for listening to my Ted Talk here. This is just the things I've observed from my experimenting around on the server and playing Jedi for a bit. If there are any other gripes, go ahead and put them down on here so I can make note of them too.
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