SWG: Evolve Forums

The gear isn't really the core problem here.

The decline in PvP mainly comes down to egos. We try our best to make PvP accessible to everyone on this server, and honestly we've done a decent job. The real issue is that some people just can't tolerate losing in any capacity -- it's weird. So you end up in this strange situation where half the people are actively trying to balance teams so everyone can have fun, while others are going full out trying to rack up 30+ kills, ensuring the only person having a good time is themselves.

I don't think dedicated PvP gear sets are the answer. And genuinely, carrying around multiple sets of armor -- one for PvE, one for PvP -- is a shitty playstyle. If you're a PvPer, build your armor around that. You'll find that you can absolutely handle the PvE side of things in your PvP armor anyway.

That said, here's what we've actually done to improve things:

We've overhauled the system with a new Battlefield system. Some highlights:

• No more painful queues -- Join active matches as they go, leave when you want, swap toons freely.
• No longer faction-based -- Play what you want to play, no scrambling to switch sides to balance numbers.
• Multiple queue types -- Solo, duo, trio, quad, and Group 4+. That last one is my personal favorite. It's built for large groups and carries a +-2 number balance, so a group of 6 experienced players can go up against a group of 8 with the advantage of numbers. No more AFKers sitting in as fillers just to avoid a slaughter.
• Forfeit option -- Group leaders can call it if the match is so lopsided there's no point continuing. Nobody has to sit through 15 minutes of getting murdered waiting for it to end.

But systems only go so far.

A great example Rezec brought up recently was the CORPS guys. They were genuinely fun to PvP against -- had a theme, good numbers, real presence. Their problem was ego. They had to win overwhelmingly. That meant going 6v2 instead of balancing teams, farming cloner trips instead of making the fight interesting for both sides. And then insisting Red=Dead even when a server group was trying to form up for Avatar Hard Mode was the nail in the coffin.

If people can take something from that -- not take this stuff overly seriously, remember it's a game, and keep in mind we're all 35+ (with the average probably sitting solidly in the 40-50s) -- then we can actually build a solid PvP community here. But if the ego problem keeps up, people are going to keep walking away from PvP, and that hurts everyone who loves it.

And for what it's worth -- PvP is my favorite part of SWG too. We want to see it thrive.

On the topic of storage decor, I would also like to add to the list that the Weapons Rack and Empty Weapons Rack purchased from recruiters that have the same issue and are also No-Trade Shared making them useless in storage when all your toons operate out of the same house.

dolanolos, post: 3810, member: 2583 wrote:

Yes, if you want to move stuff around with a weapon you have stored xp with.
If you want to move from TK to Pikeman, you need both. Just as an example.

Ultimately it takes an hour or two to grind up to 90 if you want to try something new...maybe even less if you get in a group. I've done it once, I was getting a LOT of xp just killing critters outside Eisley UNTIL I started assigning expertise points (leveling up - out leveling the xp) and had to move spots.

You need much less weapon XP than general XP when switching builds though. Either way it's easily solvable. If you're already lvl 90, just equip the weapon you wish to switch to on the build you already have "equipped" and go kill things that are your level. Takes less than 5 minutes.

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You can store up to 900K exp. It's plenty to switch builds, probably twice.

While I feel your pain, because every Jedi and their mother use Guardian Strike, I oppose this simply because I don't want carbon copies of Jedi abilities on non-Jedi. The same as I feel I don't want to see a Jedi Combat Medic because... fuckin ew. The differences between all the classes are what make them feel like actual classes. The more we pass abilities back and forth across the line the more slippery the slope will get.

I think more people just need to learn how to play in a group setting and not steal aggro from main tank or off-tank. Start letting people die and they'll learn.

Tank - Smuggler's Hideout /way Talus -6075, -100, straight south of Mos Glizzy (ISB)

Carista, post: 3442, member: 399 wrote:

This you need to explain. If by autofire you mean the auto-attack that all players have, then I have to say that both players as well as beasts never use their specials unless specifically instructed to. A beast, or pet if you will, is another character basically controlled by you. It has no AI that controls the abilities, unless you run a macro that calls the pet skills (/ui action petToolbarSlotx).
As for the pet getting confused; set it to defensive, not aggressive. That way it will only attack that what attacks its owner. Greatly reducing the chance of it getting confused.

Whatever is done, please do not(!) delete Creature Handler. Instead, show them some love.

I'm gonna clear some things up for you, but I'll start with the fact I was joking about deleting CH. There are a few people who feel passionate about CH and they should absolutely take the same steps I am and suggest QoL changes for their professions.

Firstly, auto-fire is the thing you can do by right clicking the pet's abilities. It makes it so that the ability gets fired whenever its off CD, that doesn't always work though and it gets stuck as you said not doing anything for long periods of time where all the abilities are available to use but the auto-fire isn't triggering them. I'm not talking about auto attacks, I'm talking about the abilities themselves. Yes, I could fire them off directly if I had to, but I already have a full toolbar to micro-manage, I shouldn't have to also be a brain for a pet I've "trained". And no, they are not as powerful as another character, if that we're true more people would be playing them, They're definitely a tool, as they should be considering the amount of points you spend to make them viable.

Secondly, there is no aggressive mode, just defensive and passive. I would love if there was an aggressive mode to be honest it would be awesome to not have to micro but yes one way to fix a pet not doing anything is to flip it between "stances" or recall them and then send them out to attack again. That's why I want it addressed, its a very janky profession with a lot of little quirks and extra steps you have to do to be good at it, my goal is to get it smoothed out a little so that it's more viable and will be a more fun profession to play without having to always fight little jank spots.

Ceena, post: 3438, member: 2376 wrote:

My disagreement there would be pets need pvp stat "debuffs" same as players get for pvp.

but a longer timer, for example, in PVE, would really crap on the fun of being a BM. There are a lot of pet abilities that debuff targets, not much different than CM, with long cooldowns (and long uptimes as well), that are what make pets desireable as far as expertise point investment goes.

Maybe those specials last half as long in pvp with the same cooldown timer, maybe the damage to players is reduced by x percentage, but to make that a part of the class as a whole would put BM in the same category of CH as far as viability in gameplay outside of PVP.

If you reduce any stats in PvP BM will not be viable compared to other classes. It's barely viable now, that's why you don't see very many of them. I'm tanky and I can dish out some damage, other than that my only impact on group PvP is the fact I'm a GA.

I made this thread as QoL items, not nerfs or buffs. It's just a very janky profession to play and I wanted to smooth it out. Let's stay focused on that.

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maul2023, post: 3436, member: 407 wrote:

Having to play super smart on an OP profession like BM is a very small price to pay for a heavily tanky pet that can knock you out, prevent you from defending yourself many times in a span of seconds leaving anyone completely wide open to get bonked. Other than that, everything else seems reasonable-ish. But BM don’t need nothin. If anything, if I’m not mistaken, the specials need longer timers.

Yeah I'm not adding any power, just QoL. And you stay away from my ability timers. They don't even fire half the time anyways.

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TL;DR:

Provoke needs to actually hold aggro

Pets should stay spawned through travel and speeders, maybe even act as your mount in some cases

Pets should keep buffs through death

Pet revive needs range/fix, optional corpse follow like live

Autofire ability lag is painful, AI needs to cycle faster

Creature Knowledge needs more range, longer buff, no channel, usable in combat

Give the BM “master” box something worth grabbing

I’m not here asking for new BM abilities or crazy buffs, just a few QoL tweaks that would make the profession way smoother and more fun to play. BM takes just as many points as any other combat tree, but right now a lot of the gameplay loop is just clunky compared to other professions.

1. Provoke should actually hold aggro
   Right now you use Provoke and the enemy sticks to your pet for maybe half a second before turning right back to you or other players. Even running as a Squad Leader utilizing Misdirected Anger I can't successfully hold aggro. It needs more threat generation or a shorter cooldown so it can actually be used to hold aggro. BM can run defensive/tank pets, so Provoke should work for that role.

2. Pets should stick around through travel and speeders
   If you’ve invested in BM, your pet is part of your kit and it should stay with you when you zone between starports or mount a speeder. The current system means every time you land somewhere you have to spawn the pet, spawn a buff bot, buff the pet, and then finally get moving. No other combat profession has to re-equip their weapon every time they travel. The speeder despawn is brutal in PvP because losing your pet also means losing all its buffs, which basically forces you to run everywhere to stay ready for a fight. PvE is more forgiving but PvP momentum gets wrecked.
   One possible solution, at least for certain beasts, would be letting your beast also serve as your mount instead of a speeder. That way you keep your buffs, keep your pet active, and still have fast travel without losing combat readiness.

3. Pets should keep buffs through death
   In PvP, pets are targeted constantly. Players get to keep their buffs after death and pets should too. Rebuffing every time they go down mid-fight just hands the enemy an advantage for free.

4. Pet revive needs fixing
   Currently you have to find a very specific “sweet spot” between where the server thinks the pet is and where it appears on screen to revive it. It’s clunky. Easy fixes:

Increase revive range to 15–20 meters

OR, add a “pet pull” similar to doctor corpse drag or let corpse drag work on beasts

OR add the old live behavior where the pet corpse follows you after death, which would fix a lot of revive issues
These aren’t mutually exclusive, any combo of them would help.

5. Autofire ability lag
   Pets on Autofire will often just stand there with all abilities off cooldown and not use them. The AI should cycle its Autofire macro faster so ability uptime isn’t wasted. There's also a lot of moments where you have "recall" your pet back to you before it'll start attacking again if it gets confused.

6. Creature Knowledge needs tweaks
   Learning abilities from creatures could use a range increase on Creature Knowledge, a longer buff duration, and removal of the channel and make it useable while in combat. Channeling it mid-fight feels bad and is easy to interrupt meaning you usually have to run 300m to get out of combat to reapply it, or stasis yourself which is such a long cool down you can only do it once before you find yourself running another 300m to drop combat.

7. Give the BM “master” box a reason to exist
   The master box is empty right now. It’d be great if it had something unique or fun to make it worth going for.

Balance note
None of this makes BM stronger in a way that breaks balance. It’s just smoothing out clunky mechanics and letting the profession function as well as the other combat trees.

Possible Future Discussion:
BM 5-piece. Also, delete CH.
Thanks everyone who provided initial feedback and advice for this material.
Make BM Great Again
I am Tank and I approve this message.

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Tdeadly, post: 3188, member: 364 wrote:

The issue arose when they introduced the ability to earn more points by altering the forms of the Jedi. With these additional points, it becomes easier to add various features. That’s why I suggest adding this skill to the Combat Medic class, exclusively for Player versus Player (PVP) combat.

The Serotonin Purge skill can reduce defense, regardless of the player’s Kinetic, Energy, or Elemental abilities. If the abilities are high, the defense drops to 8k all around. This necessitates the use of a medic heal or stim to stay alive. Additionally, the Action Drain skill requires precise timing to be effective.

Furthermore, in combat, players are not permitted to change their skills freely. If a player fails a skill attempt, they either fail or never die if they don’t win.

I don’t see the need to change many existing features that are effective in Player versus Environment (PVE) combat. Instead, additional features could be added to the Combat Medic class to enhance its effectiveness in PVP combat scenarios. Can other classes. But only change for PvP only.

Since I know you and Avaer say you guys to much of a tank. Than this what I think. Since you want to change the wrong things that worked find until one other change happened.

Were talking about Dark Fury Jedi specifically, where is combat medic coming into this?

The action drain absolutely does not need to be managed properly, hit that shit immediately on CD, there's no downside to it. Its so easy a troglodyte could do it.

To address the PVE side of things, it's not acceptable there either. We're doing 30k solid sustainable DPS. We melted the ping pongers and the unquenchable wrath in a 4 man group, with 2 dead and me and Avaer just on our DF Jedi. That's not intended. There's nothing balanced about that. When you are able to start skipping mechanics as a whole because you have enough DPS, regardless of which specific instance it is, something is off and needs to be looked at.

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orton, post: 2828, member: 2006 wrote:

Overview

Player cities are a cornerstone of the Star Wars Galaxies community experience. However, as server populations grow and mature, limitations in the current city infrastructure have led to several issues, including overpopulation, lack of creative freedom, and economic stagnation for crafters.

Player City Update 2.0 aims to expand city customization, encourage new player interactions, provide economic opportunities, and introduce long-term solutions to city overpopulation.

[HR][/HR]

**Key Enhancements

1. City Militia Improvements**

• Militia Accessibility Update:
  Mayors may now add players to the militia list regardless of their online status or proximity.

• Impact: Simplifies city management and improves defense logistics, especially for large, active guilds and event coordination.

• New Role – Militia Captain:
  Cities may now assign a Militia Captain, a role with limited administrative access focused on militia management.

• Can add or remove militia members
• Lightens administrative duties for mayors, especially in large cities or during wars/events

• Mayor Flagged for Removal Tool:
  Mayors may now flag structures for removal, initiating a 30-day countdown. This is intended to support long-term city planning, especially in early development stages when player-placed structures may not align with evolving layouts.

• Structure owners receive an in-game notification and have 30 days to relocate or respond.

• If no action is taken within that time, the mayor gains the ability to pack up the structure.

• Impact: Empowers mayors to refine city layouts over time while maintaining fairness and transparency with residents.

[HR][/HR]

2. City Decoration & Flavor Structures

• New Craftable “Flavor” Structures:

• Mayors and militia members can place decorative, non-functional structures such as:

• Walls and gates
• Small bridges
• Statues, monuments, non-accessible buildings

• These items are crafted by a Structure Trader, enhancing their role and boosting the in-game economy.

• Placeable Road Types:

• Roads now come in multiple variants with size options:

• Tatooinian, Nabooian, and Corellian styles
• Width variants (narrow paths, standard roads, wide boulevards)

• Impact: Provides more immersive city layouts and diverse aesthetic choices.

• Increased Decoration Limits (see Megalopolis rank below):

• Decor elements contribute to city maintenance, creating a credit sink and adding prestige to well-maintained cities.

[HR][/HR]

**3. Long-Term Expansion and Population Solutions

A. Planetary Expansion**

• Issue: All servers eventually reach the player city limit per planet, restricting growth, creativity, and new player settlement.
• Solution: Introduce new planets as needed, based on server housing demand. Once the total available player housing slots on existing planets reach near-capacity, a new planet can be unlocked for additional city development.

• Optional Themes:

• Uninhabited Outer Rim worlds: Rugged landscapes ideal for pioneers and survivalist guilds
• Reclaimed Clone Wars battlefields: Scarred terrain with remnants of war, suitable for militarized or reconstruction-themed cities
• Ancient Sith or Jedi ruins: Archaeological and Force-sensitive areas for lore-based city building and exploration potential

• Features:

• Minimal NPC footprint to maximize player construction space
• No major POIs to ensure unrestricted city placement
• Rich, flat land with varied biome options for aesthetic diversity
• Optional city-specific planetary bonuses (e.g., visual weather effects, theme-based decorative perks)

• Impact:

• Dynamically addresses housing and city demand without overextending development resources
• Protects vital harvester space for crafting-focused players
• Encourages long-term exploration, colonization themes, and economic decentralization
• Keeps the galaxy’s expansion player-driven and responsive to community growth

[HR][/HR]

4. New City Rank: Rank 6 – Megalopolis

• Requirements:

• Higher citizen count than Rank 5 (e.g., 75+ registered citizens)
• Significant maintenance fee increase to reflect status

• Benefits:

• No increase to city radius (still 500m) to avoid overextension
• Unlocks additional decoration slots
• Enables a second city specialization
• Player City Starports: Cities at Rank 6 may place a fully functional, craftable starport within their borders.

• Crafted by Structure Traders using high-end schematics and resources
• Includes options for architectural style matching planet (e.g., Tatooinian, Nabooian)
• Offers standard travel services and ticketing
• Subject to high maintenance costs to maintain balance

• Enhanced prestige and strategic significance

• Impact: Encourages player retention, coordination, and deepens late-game progression for communities. Starports further transform cities into travel hubs, increasing foot traffic, commerce, and visibility for vendors.

[HR][/HR]

5. Player Access to Existing NPC Structures

• Overview:
  This update introduces a selection of existing in-game NPC structures as player-buildable items. These are visually and thematically rich buildings already present in the world, and many players have requested access to them for personal or city customization.
• Acquisition Methods:
  These structures can be obtained through a variety of engaging methods:
• Quest Rewards: Unlocked upon completing specific storylines or city development quests
• Token Purchases: Available via token vendors or faction-based merchants
• Rare Drops: Introduced as low-drop-rate rewards from bosses, events, or world encounters
• Impact:
• Expands creative and aesthetic options for players and city planners
• Incentivizes engagement with multiple game systems (PvE, economy, questing, and exploration)
• Reuses existing high-quality assets in a way that enhances player satisfaction and world-building cohesion

[HR][/HR]

Benefits to Game Ecosystem

• Economy Boost:

• New craftable items provide purpose and profit for Structure Traders.
• City maintenance increases serve as a long-term credit sink, helping to balance the in-game economy.

• Enhanced Player Expression:

• Players can create visually distinctive cities that reflect their guild identity or roleplaying themes.

• Community Engagement:

• Encourages group coordination, promotes creativity, and revitalizes city-building as a shared endgame activity.

[HR][/HR]

Closing Remarks

Player City Update 2.0 represents a forward-thinking evolution of one of SWG’s most beloved systems. By empowering mayors, revitalizing trader markets, and offering scalable solutions to infrastructure limitations, this update ensures player cities remain relevant, dynamic, and integral to the ongoing story of the galaxy.

Yes pleaseeeee, however, one thing to think about that could be addressed at the same time, is the amount of hinky unlevel land on most planets. We initially grew ISB to over 80 residents and quickly ran out of useable space due to unlevel terrain/sloped terrain that wouldn't allow for structure placement. A lot of cities run into this issue on most planets (some are obviously better than others with flat land availability) and it would be nice to have some sort of tool or auto leveling that occurs around City Hall structures. I really don't know what this looks like back-end wise and whether or not its even feasible, but since we're talking about larger cities I wanted to point out possible issues. Love the mayoral eviction notice idea. That would help so much with people who aren't playing anymore but have a million in maintenance so the house is just here forever.

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Rezec, post: 3164, member: 1 wrote:

All of this data is stored as objvars on the personal device.

One alternative implementation is to place one in Mos Eisley for people who want to compete publicly. This leaves the personal ones open to guilds, friends, etc that want to only compete against each other.

We were also discussing maybe implementing a leaderboard wipe every once in a while. Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Guess we'll have to see which would be the best option. Looking to do some cool events with these mini games in the near future.

Tdeadly, post: 3161, member: 364 wrote:

Don’t Take anything away add the action drian everything is work as supposed be.

I'm curious how you think it's working as intended when I can go out on a DPS build, tank 3 people at the same time, and kill them all very quickly. And then Avaer does it even better than I do.

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Convenient that the screenshot was taken AFTER you beat my high scores :ROFLMAO:

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mediocrebh, post: 3139, member: 284 wrote:

Obviously a great framework, my only concern will be any outrageous power increasing stat increases that may entice some folks into finding ways to cheat...prestigious items and title rewards are cool to display and for reputation status. Slight increases to pvp only and bh stats/abilities would be more my cup of tea similiar to the FRS jedi system....they are great, but not worth cheating the system for. I definitely like this well thought out format, it would also be cool to incorporate this system format (if implemented) for a smuggler underworld system.

I second this; small, targeted boosts similar to the FRS system would make a lot of sense. Like I mentioned in voice, the real problem with BH isn’t raw damage output — it’s defense.

On top of that, Hellion brought up a great point that ties into this line:
“Bounty Hunters should be the most feared in the galaxy. Not because of their power, but because of the tools at their disposal.”

I love this concept and it’s exactly how we should be rethinking how profession expertises works for BHs. Instead of just stuffing them full of generic FRS-style stat boxes, why not focus on expanding their toolkit? Imagine a full revamp of bomb droids, tracking droids, and even combat droids — like a droid that can apply a snare debuff on a timer, or even dires if they cost rare mats to create(like ones from the new hardmode or future hardmodes).

Not only does this give the BH class a more unique, tactical playstyle, but it’s a perfect excuse to boost the crafting economy too, since these droids could all be consumable. BHs already rake in credits from bounties, so needing to regularly restock their gear is totally in character — and it adds depth instead of just flat stat creep.

Obviously, this should all be locked behind Master BH, but it fits nicely with past ideas about overhauling droids anyway. Plus, it could tie in well with Rezec’s new droid profession idea — a win for crafters and a fresh identity for BHs.

I endorse this message!

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Are you an Imperial sick of filing TPS reports in triplicate for Darth Paperclip?
Are you a Rebel who's realized that "freedom" actually means sleeping in a tent and dying for a cause with no dental plan?

Good news! We’re the dysfunctional family you didn’t know you needed.

Guild Name: Imperial Security Bureau (-I-), Webels (-R-)
Faction: Yes.
We accept Imperials and Rebels because we believe in equal-opportunity incompetence. If you’ve ever wanted to be judged by both sides of the galactic war simultaneously, now’s your chance.

Perks include:

• Group content where half of us are trying and the other half are "vibing"
• PvP, PvE, and PTSD—whatever you need
• Crafting sessions that devolve into debates over whether bantha milk is vegan
• A Discord server where your memes will be judged harshly, but fairly
• A city on Talus that is way better than Spiceville.

Requirements:

• A pulse (optional)
• The ability to mash buttons while blaming lag
• A complete disregard for faction loyalty
• An undying hatred of Ewoks (non-negotiable)

Join today. Or don’t. We’ll still be here. Mocking each other. Poorly dressed and over-geared.

Contact Tank in Discord.

This message brought to you by Cris-om, who basically pointed out that I haven't been doing my job to recruit anyone lately.

P.S. We have Statik... 'nuff said

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I would like to see more armor options for Wookiees. This doesn't have to be crazy like incorporating them into the wookiee body or anything. Wookiees are able to wear Katarn armor and it shows and the armor just makes us look like a huge Katarn trooper, something like that would be amazing. Would be nice to have options as most of the wookiee armor and clothes are kinda trash.

Suggestion to make the non-combat PvE rez available to Novice Doctor. Simply for rezzes in PvE content when a full Master Doctor or Sage Jedi isn't available. Another alternative idea is make a craftable revive for same situations.

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