Make ALL classes viable?

[xxbobafett]

This is my 1st post. I've been playing on Awakening for almost four months now. Impressive job devs!!! This is, in my opinion, the best emu server out there. You guys truly know how to make an enjoyable gaming experience!

My question/suggestion is: How hard would it be to make all combat classes somewhat equal? I know nothing about the complexity of such a project. It would be nice if all the combat classes got comparable stats both offensively and defensively to make a non cookie cutter build more effective. If pikeman was more in line with swordsman then more people would play it. Seems like smuggler could be changed a bit as well to give some offensive/defensive bonuses as well??? These are just a couple examples.

Thanks for the great server!!!

[BigQEd]

This is my 1st post. I've been playing on Awakening for almost four months now. Impressive job devs!!! This is, in my opinion, the best emu server out there. You guys truly know how to make an enjoyable gaming experience!

My question/suggestion is: How hard would it be to make all combat classes somewhat equal? I know nothing about the complexity of such a project. It would be nice if all the combat classes got comparable stats both offensively and defensively to make a non cookie cutter build more effective. If pikeman was more in line with swordsman then more people would play it. Seems like smuggler could be changed a bit as well to give some offensive/defensive bonuses as well??? These are just a couple examples.

Thanks for the great server!!!

One of the issues is, that the original Pre-CU wasn't designed like that. SWG Pre-CU is a sandbox style MMO and you should be able to mix and match multiple professions and classes to get the "blend" you like. If we made them all equal it would take away from that in a lot of ways and could really throw more out of balance.

Short answer, near impossible. However, we often look to make sure things are "working as intended" and we are away that some items currently do not function as intended. We are working on them.

[Cynar]

Because of the current size of our Team it's hard to take on huge undertakings like complete game redesign. First and foremost, these aren't classes, they are professions. As Ed said the purpose was to mix and match these. So one could craft, entertain, have combat, etc. All professions aren't created equal and there was a reason for that.

To make a smuggler as good as a master swordsman just isn't feasible nor should it be. Smuggler wasn't designed to work like that. It's a hybrid gear enhancing profession along with some combat proficiency. It balances great with some pistoleer or some crafting professions. That's how it was designed to work. So if we re-worked it to be a combat tanking profession or a viable replacement it would throw things all out of whack.

Professions are designed to provide you with certain skills as well as skill enhancing abilities. There are a lot of things that have to been taken into account when changing a profession around and how that might unbalance other things. Take Jedi and BH for example. We have been playing the rebalancing game of sorts with them for months now and they still aren't perfect.

All professions are viable. You just have to learn how to play with them, tweak the mix, use of gear, clothes, good, drugs, buffs to make them more viable for the style of gameplay you are looking for. You are provided 10 characters with dozens of potential profession combinations and many choices. I think that is enough for now, don't you?

We aren't trying to create a new game, we are trying to to really bring the old game back and give it a smidge of challenge we thought it was missing.

[zaydah]

The variances in professions is what made this game great and the effort to equalize it all is what killed it.