Notional Expansion Concept

[scratcha]

I’m the kind of player who prefers MMOs that offer tactical and cerebral challenges; I also prefer to go it alone as much as possible – I don’t think I’m alone in the features I want in my gaming experience. So, here’s an expansion path I’d like to see.

 

New Class: Mogul (Empire); Scientist (Republic). Class uses existing species.

 

Backstory: the character has been accused of being a traitor for selling droid design secrets to the opposing faction and at startup is confined on an orbiting prison station above Coruscant or Dromund Kass, as appropriate. To leverage extant development efforts, I’d imagine the prison layout would look a lot like the Republic/Imperial Fleet vessel, with obvious prison-like affectations and additional architectural levels. For players, levels 1-10, the quests revolve around finding escape routes off the prison vessel. These will capitalize on the Class skills. For lightside players the long-term goal is redemption (proving innocence) and achieving power through scientific discovery. For darkside players the goal is achieving wealth and power through bribery and intimidation. Starter skills might include Bribery Push and Fist Punch. Players will be able to equip whatever weapons they get through drops (pistols/rifles for main hand and vibroknives for off hand).

 

Class Mechanics. Independently, the new class will be rather weak, compared to existing classes. Very early on, the Class will select a companion-gang member (as early as the first quest). At onset of quests on the first two successive planets the Class will select additional gang members as a component of their Class quests. As might be expected, most actual fighting will be done by the gang members (more later under Companions). The Class is not entirely defenseless, however, but the approach is totally different from the other classes. For instance, the Class will utilize DoT poisons; stun devices, and weak physical attacks. Additionally, dependent upon the selected Talents, the Class can unlock Bribery and Intimidation skills. The Class would have access to powerful squad heals and defensive buffs. Where Sith Warriors, for instance, use Rage, this Class is dependent upon Stamina (yellow bar). By design, Moguls and Scientists are not gifted with great physical abilities; thus, any physical combat they engage in will use their stamina very quickly – and it will be slow to regenerate.

 

Class Characteristics. Moguls/Scientists may use any weapon available in the game; however, there’s a drawback. The Class’s most powerful tool is anonymity (neutrality) among otherwise aggressive mobs and bosses – the Class can thus move relatively unmolested among normal and strong mobs. The Class can wear light, medium, and heavy armor, but to maintain their neutrality they must maintain balance between Strength, Willpower, Aim, and Cunning. None of the foregoing can exceed the others by more than 25 percent. The drawback, of course, is that the Class is weak offensively and must rely on their gang members and other skills to survive and conquer. Secondary and tertiary attributes, like Endurance, Presence, Force, and Power have no bearing on neutrality. Presence may be the Class’s most sought after attribute, as unlike the other classes it will have some influence on companion/gang member loyalty.

 

Talent Trees. The three talent trees would be: Wealth & Influence; Droid Mastery; and Biomechanics.

 

Wealth & Influence presents opportunities to multiply monetary quest rewards and drops. Talents in this tree also unlock skills for bribing normal, strong, elite, and champion mobs/bosses (droids and non-humanoid mobs/bosses cannot be bribed). There would also be talents for intimidation. While this tree bodes for enriching the Class much more than other classes, there’s also a cost to “doing business” by way of bribery; for instance, normal mobs might be bribed for a cost equal to their level x3, strong mobs x6, elites x10, and champions x100. Of course, there’s a risk the mob or boss will refuse the bribe and attack anyway. And, for completion of many routine quests, bribery is counterproductive to completing the quest. Bribed mobs and bosses will actually join the Class’s gang for a limited time or until they are killed. In addition to multiplying the Class’s wealth, talents within this tree will multiply the number of planetary commendations received (more about this later).

 

The Droid Mastery tree provides the capability to reverse engineer conquered droids for the purpose of unlocking droid component schematics (for mobility, defense, and armament). At about level-35 the Mogul/Scientist who’s selected this tree will complete a Chapter quest that allows them to construct a rather powerful droid (the droid’s abilities will be dependent upon the schematics previously discovered through Class quests). New droid capabilities can be added as additional schematics are discovered. It should be noted that players who’ve selected the Wealth & Influence tree will be able to purchase schematics (at a high cost) through the same Class quest line. The Droid Mastery tree will also unlock skills allowing providing for temporarily disabling enemy droids or (as a counterpoint to the Wealth tree) causing droids to temporarily switch sides and fight for the Class player’s gang.

 

The Biometric talent tree unlocks poisons, stuns, squad heals, squad buffs, and limited physical offensive skills (like Garrote, which might do DoT and temporarily incapacitate mobs). It’s important to note that all these skills are DoT. The Class is designed to “lead” and support the gang with stuns, DoT, and exceptional heals and buffs. This tree will also unlock mines and grenades that do AoE stuns and DoT. Other talents might enhance the Class’s stamina, presence, and endurance. By design, this is a support tree and I would not anticipate that a player would select exclusively from this tree’s talents.

 

Companions. Unlike the other classes, this Class will have the capability to select companions/gang members – and they may have up to five gang members active simultaneously. Moreover, they may eliminate and add new companions as they level up. Available companions within the game will have varying degrees of loyalty and motivations. Companions prone to the darkside may be primarily motivated by achieving wealth or committing mayhem. Lightside-prone companions will be motivated by helping those in need and the notion of belonging to a “family.” Dependent on the player’s long-term lightside/darkside decisions, they must choose their companions wisely. Darkside companions will expect a “split” of whatever loot is received, and if they don’t get it they may attack the player or even run off with other gang members. Lightside companions may do the same thing when they feel their leader is taking them down a darker path. From a control standpoint, the player must select one of the companions as a “lieutenant.” Only the lieutenant’s companion bar will be visible, even though multiple companions may be simultaneously summoned. Players should also pay heed to selecting companions that can tank and do DPS. I envision that none of the companions can heal, as that’s one of the player’s principal responsibilities. Only the lieutenant will converse with the player, and it will be most important to maintain the lieutenant’s loyalty, lest he formulate a gang coup d’états. Like their leader, companions must maintain their anonymity; thus, are required to maintain a balance among aim, strength, cunning, and willpower with regard to their armor and equipment. This ensures the Class is not imbalanced compared to other classes and enforces the “gang” strength in numbers component of this Class.

 

Unique Class Crew Skills. Upon achieving Dark I, II, and III Moguls will unlock crew (gang) missions for robbing cartel banks, trading vessels, and other targets. Cost for these missions is high, but potential rewards are even higher. Conversely, upon achieving Light I, II, and III Scientists unlock scientific research missions that can produce droid-related schematics. Unwanted/duplicate schematics placed on the galactic marketplace are a principal source for Moguls who want to build their own super-droids. Scientists can reverse engineer schematics to make them even more powerful. Moguls may also use planetary commendations to purchase droid schematics. Moguls are not scientists and thus haven’t the expertise to reverse engineer droid schematics.

 

Last thoughts. As balance is the theme for this Class insofar as anonymity is concerned, so too is a degree of balance within the talent trees. Played successfully, I should think it important that someone emphasizing the Wealth & Influence tree would also want to select talents within the Droid Master tree, and especially the Biometric tree. Conversely, a player emphasizing the Droid Mastery try might find some wealth and bribery skills important.

 

Finally, I think these notional thoughts about a new Class work because they leverage easily off of existing game mechanics. But, mostly, I think this Class adds a very new dimension to the game – something quite different from extant MMOs, but sill in keeping with the over all SWTOR theme and storyline.

 

... and let the flaming begin