The New Patch - Poll and Discussion

[Cedrin]

I would like to put up a poll and discussion about the new patch.

 

To begin with, I am very disapointed with it. The new combat appears lack real strategy used in prepatch and more of a backstab and slash widely feast. The swings are much more restricted now then ever before. While fighting I would be able to clearly tell if the opponet was struck by my yellow/blue saber, now I cant tell wether it was a burn or an strike. Knowing exactly how much health your opponet had left was a very good tactic and let you determine which saber to finish them off with. For example, you could kill your opponet with 2 slashes with yellow prepatch by one overhead slash and one sideslash. Now it may take up to 5 hits with yellow. It was like the swings were more fluid and now they are rigid.

 

In my opinion, inexperienced players will praise the patch since it gives them more of a chance to win a duel rather then loosing over and over again to the experienced players. I'm not talking about DFA spammers, they are no where near the realm of "experienced player".

 

First of all, the saber damages were reduced by half. Meaning it will take twice as long to finish the fight then before. While this may be a good thing to give the inexperienced player more of a chance to win, it prolongs the battle and makes for a hackslash boring feast. I believe this should be a server side option to enable half damage or not.

 

The DFA move actually has been improved but can only be used on a surpise attack due to its side-effect of locking you down in position until the move is finished. You miss your opponet, you will get stuck in the back by your enemy always. While is just a minor drawback to experienced players, it is a major drawback to the DFA spammers who will need to relearn how to play. LOL. What comes around goes around.

 

However, I believe it was a very bad discision to make such drastic changes in a "patch". That makes it look like this game is still in beta.

 

I didnt continue to play this game on my free time to have it completely changed. I have grown apon my tactics and strategies that I use with yellow, blue and red (when the opportunity arrises).

 

Unfortunately I will find another game to play not becuase the changes to the styles and such, becuase I dont trust Raven. Further down the line they will likely change gameplay again catering towards the complainers who get torn up by the experienced players.

 

That is what I believe these changes were all about.

 

These are my opinions, I would like to hear others pro and con.

 

-Cedrin

[Kyth'emos]

I agree that they should have left the danage done by the various stances alone, but I believe that the good far outways the bad.

 

Kyth'emos

 

PS - did you really stop playing cause of a patch ?

[SirDogmeat]

I havent played with the force powers at all since the patch came out, so im not going to bother commenting on those...

 

What I will comment on is the uproar this patch has caused with all the ctf'ers around here. It seems (IMHO) that people seem to think CTF revolves around the usage of guns.

 

Now don't get me wrong about this, guns are needed in CTF, but to toally rely on them is kind of a excercise in frustration. It is my belief that raven did what they did in the patch for one reason : that being that this game is a balance between the lightsaber and weapons combat. I say this on based on 2 points:

 

A) The weapons in this game are horribly inacuccurate. These weapons downright suck. I dont know what the big deal is about, but there's only a handful of the 10-12 i would even consider using in MP. The disruptor is the best weap IMO, based solely on the fact that it has some sort of range to it... The repeater is spammy, and its sole use is that of the alt fire. Woohoo! skill based on splash damage, sign me up! The rockets are the slowest thing I've seen, and arent the most terribly destructive thing when u match em up with the speed of the projectile. The rest you ask? They downright suck, End of Story. Nothing more than spam. The flechette, the crossbow, the Storm rifle, all just plain suck. Why u ask? Because they were intended to be balanced against melee combat... FYI my personal fav weap in this game is the detonation packs... LOL

 

Where's the skill in the spammy weapons? I'm not seeing it, maybe im wrong, but it kind of seems obvious here.

 

B) The single player revolves around the lightsaber and forcepowers, not the weapons... I know when i played through it, the weapons were a vague memory once i got my hands on the trusty blade. Is there a reason for this perhaps? I think so. Just call it a hunch if you will, but once again, thats my opinion.

 

Maybe I'm wrong... Call me a saberist if you will, if it makes you feel better, but thats hardly the case... What I do know is this... If raven intended the ctf to be guns and force power only, they did one horrible job on the guns, and judging from the fps's that I've seen from them previously, that's not chareteristic of them.

 

To sum it all up, Raven, u did a good job on this game, and while i can't say i agree 100% with everything this last patch had in it, overall it's a better game afterwards. Maybe we'll see a bit of variety in playing styles now. JKO is a good STAR WARS game.

 

Every Star Wars game EXCEPT JK that I've played(not necessarily video games either), that seriously gave "the force" some weight/thought was a game of checks and balances, and it is because of that that I support what they are trying to do here. Most Every opinion I read on these boards, hear in chat, or otherwise from people about this game, seems to be biased in one way or the other, because they dont see the otherside.

 

Checks and balances people...

[Cedrin]

Why is it that unless my thread has excessive cursing and flamming that no one will read it..

 

Perhaps I need to post a pr0n picture in the thread..

[A.T. Hun]

I think you're being a bit melodramatic. Skill is still skill. The patch made for less one-hit-kills. A more skilled player will still make mincemeat out of a less experienced one. End of story. I have grave difficulty believing that you will have such a hard time adapting.

 

One thing I like from the patch is that the fast lightsaber style is actually usable now instead of being utterly worthless. The strong stance will still do more damage (and is probably more effective in the hands of a skilled player), but the user also becomes more vulnerable--a better balance. The speed between medium and fast is also now more obvious. I find myself switching between the three styles as situations warrant instead of going strong all the time.

 

My $0.02, $3,245 Canadian

[Aylnon]

In response to the comment about taking 5+ hits with yellow vs the old 2 hits.

 

Pre-patch, I was able to charge an opponent and within two seconds or so they would be minced to pulp. Post-patch...it takes just as long! I have made kills just as quickly post-patch as pre-patch. The only difference is I don't rely on the tactics I used pre. I have taught myself a new style, and it works better than my old one. Why? I'm no longer creating a defensive "dodge the heavy whore" style, I can now create a patient, yet malevolent style, and take down most foes.

 

The reason the stances were so drastically altered were simply for these reasons:

 

Red - Far too powerful, and any newbie could score a one hit kill, especially with the death from above. No skill was required to win a match with this stance, only against it.

 

Yellow - Didn't anyone notice how over-used this stance was amongst real players? Why? It had similar power to red, but as much speed as blue. It was unbalanced, and a skilled player could rip anyone to pieces with this, if they could avoid all the DFAs. It was too similar to both styles. Toned down, it becomes a stance all its own.

 

Blue - Locking the direction of the lunge, and making the back-stab blockable were two strange moves made. I can understand the alteration to the lunge, as alot of people exploited its nature. I used it alot against jumpers, and it still works great in those situations, but no longer will people just lunge and lunge and lunge and...yeah. As for the back stab, that should not be blockable. That's one minor complaint. I tested this, and it can be blocked.

 

That is my spill.

I like the patch, no more heavy whores.

 

PS As for the patch making the game seem like it is in beta stages, in reality, it is! No other game out there offers this sort of combat. This is a first. It is taking a step in a direction no other game has ventured, and of course they won't be able to get it right on a closed beta, or whatever. They need feedback from the public online to see what the major draw backs are, that small scale betas don't provide.

[nattydred]

Thsi poll shows more people like the patch by far! And it was worded fairly with a nuetral title to this post.

 

 

Other polls I have seen, including the one that said "post here if you hate the patch" ( that title biases the poll right away of course) show that its 50/50 or better in favor of the patch, usually way better than 50 /50.

 

The patch is a hit.

 

 

Start enjoying it now. People that "owned" before the patch are still owning now! Dont get left behind!

[kaeris]

I agree completely. If you really have skill, you should be able to adapt and dominate with any patch raven gives you. I think Darwin said something or other about adaptation and extinction or something.

[Jedi_Jack]

skill is extremely important in the new patch, but it's of a different nature. take time to learn how to play with it and enjoy the bloody thing. the game is BETTER for the new patch.

 

IMPROVISE! ADAPT! OVERCOME! for cryin' out loud...