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Combat Flag

Fighting creatures, bandits, other players, or anyone that you consider an enemy is an integral part of adventuring. Players are considered to be in-combat so long as they are continually attacking a target or being attacked by an npc, player or creature, or if an npc/creature has activated aggression (in pursuit) towards the player. Players become disengaged from combat if the player has initiated the Peace command and the following conditions have met:

• 1. Npc/creature ceases its pursuit
• 2. Npc/creature stops attacking player.
• 3. Enemy player ceases attacking the player.
• 4. Player ceases attacking an enemy target (uses peace or changes targets).

Several examples will illustrate this.

Example 1.

Player attacks an npc then runs to escape from it. The player initiates the /peace command and stops attacking back. The npc remains in pursuit for a while longer and then halts the chase and returns back. The player is now out of combat.

Example 2.

Player attacks another player. The defending player doesn't respond back. The attacking player now initiates peace. Both players are now out of combat.

HAM Bars

Players, Npcs and Creatures have three bars representing their Health, Action, and Mind pool. When you target something, its name and HAM bar will appear in your heads up display, as well as over the target's head. Red represents the Health pool, green represents the Action pool, and blue represents the Mind pool. When you deal damage to a target through combat, you will notice that its Health, Action, and Mind pools deplete, based upon the amount and type of damage dealt. This can be seen in the HAM bar by a shortening of the colored bar that represents the pool that was depleted. When any one of the three pools is completely depleted, the remainder of the colored bar will disappear and the target will die if it as npc or creature or become incapacitated if is a player.

Damage received by and done to targets is displayed in flytext over the character/npc's head. The damage hit location is also displayed. Both the hit location and damage amount done are color coded to display the ham bar(s) that were affected by the attacks.

Targeting

SWG uses a system for targeting opponents that utilizes two features, a Look At target and a Target In Reticle. You can switch look at targets with the mouse or use the TAB key. The target in reticle remains the target in which the player is actively engaging/attacking or being attacked by. Until you /attack or /combatAttack the look at target you will not switch 'combat' targets.

If you have something else in the look at target, and combat begins, you do not automatically switch to your opponent in reticle. Any specials or actions that are lined up in the Combat Queue are attempted against what you do have targeted in the look at target. If the current look at target is an inanimate object (like a harvester) or a corpse, then the client will not be able to execute these commands.

The easiest way to check to see if this is the case is to look at the upper right hand corner of your screen, where it lists what you have targeted. If it's not the opponent that's attacking you, clear your target by clicking on an empty piece of ground or by hitting escape. You can clear the combat queue with the mouse and clicking Clear on the combat queue pane or use Ctrl-Backspace. Finally you can issue the attack command via the radial menu with the mouse or from the keyboard (~1), or double click the new look target, or use the /attack or /combatAttack commands or icons. The next opponent that attacks you will become your new target or you can click on the opponent manually to make it the new lookat target. If he's a melee NPC, and is still running towards you, he wont become the target until after he has attacked).

In general, to handle multiple attackers you want to 1) switch look targets, 2) clear your combat queue, and then 3) attack.

To cycle back to all previous targets (living or dead) the player must issue the SHIFT + CTRL + ; keys.

Special Attack Costs

Default or auto attacks require no HAM to use. Almost every special attack or ability in the game has a base value associated with it. This base value represents the HAM that will be deducted from the player whenever they use that ability. Weapons are also given base values which are found under the Special Attack Cost category on the item. When a special is used with a weapon, a multiplier for that particular special comes into play. The multiplier for that particular special is multiplied against the current Special Attack Cost values on the weapon, then the values are added to the base special HAM costs. The value that comes from this process is then passed on to be affected by the player's secondary stats for each HAM attribute. The final HAM cost to the player is the remainder from this process. If a player does not have sufficient HAM to cover the costs of using the special either by itself or with the equipped weapon, then the player is simply denied the ability to use the special.

Note: Base cost in the following example is the summation of the actual base ham cost of the special plus the calculated multiplier against the weapon special attack costs. For example if the base costs on a special were 50, the multiplier on the special was 1.5 and the special attack cost value on the weapon was 50 then the base cost of the special prior to going through secondary stats would be 125.

Final Ham Cost Formula:

Cost = Base * ( 1 - ( Stat / 1400 ) )

For example:

1. Unarmed Hit 2 has a base cost of 12/18/12.

2. Given an Strength/Quickness/Focus of 400/350/450, the HAM cost is reduced by 28.6% / 25% / 32%.

3. HAM cost for these stats is 9/14/8. That's 8.75 / 13.5 / 8.14 rounded.

I'll stress again that the formula isn't accounting for some fractional amounts, but will usually get within 1 point of actual ingame costs.

HAM cost formula where Base is the Health, Aaction or Mind base cost for the skill and Stat is the relevant Strength, Quickness and Focus value:

Attack Speed

The speed in which a player in combat attacks a target is determined by 4 things:

1. Speed skill modifier of the player
2. Weapon Speed
3. Special Speed Multiplier
4. Force Speed bonus

Things to note:

• There is a delay cap in which you can fire at no faster than 1 time per second. In other words, the max speed you can ever achieve is 1.0. ***HOWEVER*** Special Moves have their OWN Speed penalties, which means that you will probably want to achieve a modified Attack Speed less than 1.0 if you want to spam your specials quickly. A FAST weapon isn't necessarily useless because of this speed cap...you can still take advantage of an ultra-fast weapon while doing your special moves.

Speed Modifiers

Speed skill modifiers are obtained from a variety of soruces; specialization in particular branches of a profession that utilizes a particular weapon that the player is using; Clothing attachments, and from temporary skill modifier enhancement stims. Speed modifiers include things such as "Two-hand weapon speed" "unarmed attack speed" and so on.

The following should be considered as 'default attack speed' with no special used in the attack. The formula for the affects of Speed skill mods on weapon speeds is as follows:

Attack Delay = Weapon Speed * (1 - Speed Skill/100)

Examples:

Speed Skill 10, Weapon Speed 5.0; Attack Delay = 5.0 * (1 - 10/100) = 4.5
Speed Skill 10, Weapon Speed 2.0; Attack Delay = 2.0 * (1 - 10/100) = 1.8

Speed Skill 50, Weapon Speed 5.0; Attack Delay = 5.0 * (1 - 50/100) = 2.5
Speed Skill 50, Weapon Speed 2.0; Attack Delay = 2.0 * (1 - 50/100) = 1.0

Speed Skill 80, Weapon Speed 5.0; Attack Delay = 5.0 * (1 - 80/100) = 1.0
Speed Skill 80, Weapon Speed 2.0; Attack Delay = 2.0 * (1 - 80/100) = 0.4

Special Attack Delays

Special moves have their own speed delay penalty multipliers which affect how fast the player attacks while using a particular special.

The formula to calculate this is:

Special Attack Delay = Special Delay Penalty * Attack Delay

Example: You have Generic Special X, and this special has a 2x delay penalty.

Speed Skill 80, Weapon Speed 5.0;

Attack Delay = 5.0 * (1 - 80/100) = 1.0
Special Attack Delay = 2 * 1.0 = 2.0

When using Generic Special X, you will fire with a delay of (1.0 * 2), or 2.0 speed. So while it may seem that getting anything faster than 5.0 delay is a waste in this example, it truly isn't because of the delay penalty imposed on specials.

Speed Skill 80, Weapon Speed 2.0;
Attack Delay = 2.0 * (1 - 80/100) = 0.4
Special Attack Delay = 2 * 0.4 = 0.8

In this example, even though the 2.0 speed seems like a waste, it is actually very good, since it brings down the special move delay to the speed cap. You can now go ahead and spam your specials and fire at 1.0 all day.

Force Speed

The last affect on attack speed is the usage of force enhancement effects from the jedi force enhancer profession. This acts as a type of 'haste buff' which temporarily increases the overall attack speed on an attack.

The formula used for Attack Delay is:

Attack Delay = ((100-ForceSpeedBonus)/100)*((100-Weapon Speed Mod)/100) * Weapon Speed * Special Delay Penalty

Weapon Certifications

Weapon certifications are granted at certain skill boxes in the profession trees. Weapon certifications grant a player the ability to use the full damage potential of a weapon without penalty as well as the ability to use special attacks from the profession line that the weapon is certified to. Ordinarily a weapon suffers a massive damage penalty (probably 99%) if a player attempts to use it without having trained the proper skill sets. Weapons with dots will not have their dot effect go off if the player is not certified to use that particular weapon. Lastly, players who have not trained in a profession skill box that the weapon uses cannot use specials associated with that weapon.

Not all weapon certifications are listed with the corresponding skill box in which the weapon can be used effectively by. These 'unlisted' certifications include a number of special looted and quest related items. Some weapons actually use cross profession skill modifiers and abilities. A list of these items along with what skill set they they become certified with is provided below:

Innate Certifications

Innate Certs : There a number of innate certifications that races get automatically upon character creation. There 10 for Wookiees and 9 for all other races. They are:

CDEF Pistol
CDEF Carbine
CDEF Rifle
Stone Knife
Survival Knife
C12 Grenade
Zixc Bug Bomb (Quest Reward)
Heavy Axe
Wooden Staff
Bowcaster (wookiee only)

Other Weapons

• Beam Rifle (No Certification. Probably should make this Novice Commando certification with the Launcher Pistol and have it use Rifle speed/accuracy modifiers and specials like the launcher pistol uses pistol modifiers.

• Launcher Pistol (Novice Command) - The launcher pistol is of special note in that it uses pistol accuracy and speed modifiers even though its certification is in novice commando. Launcher pistols are also allowed to use pistol, smuggler and marksman specials.

• Heavy Acid Rifle, Heavy Particle Beam Cannon, Heavy Acid Beam, Flame Thrower, Lightning Beam Cannon, Light Lightning Cannon, Rocket Launcher weapons are all allowed to use general marksman specials such as overcharge shot, point blank area, point blank single, suppression fire, and threaten shot.

Looted Weapons

• Corsec CDEF Carbine (CDEF Carbine)
• Corsec CDEF Pistol (CDEF Pistol)
• Corsec Scout Blaster (Unknown, probably Pistols II)
• Curved Nyax Sword (Unknown, probably Brawler One-Handed I)
• Donkuwah Knife (Unknown, probably Stone Knife)
• Janta Knife (Unknown, probably Stone Knife)
• Janta Staff (Unknown, probably Wood Staff)
• Nightsister Lance (Unknown, probably Polearms II)
• Nyax Sword (Unknown, probably Brawler One-Handed I)

Quest Item

• Rantok - (Brawler One Handed IV)
• Tusken King's Rifle (None. Probably should make this Marksman Rifles I)

Quest Rewards

• Modified Republic Blaster (Novice Pistoleer)
• Featherweight FWG5 (Marksman Pistols IV)
• Nym's Slug-thrower Carbine (Novice Carbineer)
• Lithitanium Carbine (Unknown, probably Marksman Carbines II)
• Black Metal Gaderiffi Baton (Unknown, probably Brawler One-Handed I)
• Lithitanium Rifle (Unknown, probably Marksman Rifles I)

Stages of Combat

When a target is placed in combat with an enemy, each action goes through a progressive series of checks to determine the outcome of that action.

1. Chance to Hit Stage(A.K.A. Accuracy):

This stage determines whether or not an attack will hit at all. The first part of this is affected by a chance to outright 'miss' an attack.

2. Secondary Defense Stage

If an attack passes the chance to hit stage, then it goes through a secondary defense check. These defenses are associated with most elite professions and only activate if the target is equipping a weapon that belongs to that profession.

Percentage Chance to Dodge, Block, or Counterattack

• 1. Type of secondary defense depends on Weapon Held

• • a. Dodge: Pistols and Fencer Weapons
  • b. Block: Rifles and Pikeman Weapons
  • c. Counterattack: Carbines and Swordsmen Weapons

• 2. All characters start with 0.1% chance to dodge, block or counterattack

• 3. Each point of dodge, block, or counterattack adds 1% chance to perform these are increased by skills and attachments.

• 4. Dodge stacks with dodge modifiers, block stacks with block modifiers, and counterattack stacks with counterattack modifiers

5. Hit Location Selection

Once an attack is flagged as hitting the player (in the case of being blocked as well) This stage determines which HAM bar(s) are affected by the attack and to what percentage of the overall attack will be passed on to those particular bars.

6. Damage Determination Stage

Damage calculated to be done to the target using a particular weapon and/or ability. This stage calculates all weapon, buff, and ability modifiers to calculate the aggregate damage that will be done to the target.

7. Armor Reduction Stage

Stage in which damage reduction occurs. Resistance and armor rating values on the armor of the target reduce the overall damage done to it.

9. Damage Mitigation Stage

The final stage for damage determination passes on the remaining damage that has gotten through teh armor resistances. The damage then goes through the Ranged and Melee Damage Mitigation modifiers that the player obtains in their elite profession.

10. State Application Chance Stage

Stage that determines chance of Bleeding, Blind, Delay, Disease, Dizzy, Intimidate, Knockdown, Poison, and Stun effects application.These only take effects when certain special abilities are used The chance of applying state effects is determined by taking Attackers State Application Modifier Skill and applying a check versus the Defenders state modifier defenses against the particular state effect.

Source References