Many Suggestions & = DEATH STAR-2 Raid = draft

Weltall
98 posts Member
edited April 2017
Greetings everyone!

Not too long ago i've had some creative moments after reading some forum threads about possible future Fleet Raids and reflected a bit how i would design a raid in this game's current state. So i thought i could actually share these ideas with the community and foremost to the game devs if they ever care to look over this. One might think "whoa, this guy is crazy and has too much free time on his hands" but i had fun writing this up and no, this was written spread out over a couple of days :)

Foreword:
I play since roughly early November 2016, so i missed the game's launch and first pvp-metas, but have read much about them and know pretty much every character's and ship's ability set up to this point (actually lies, i havent looked much into SW Rebels chars mostly because i am a canon+movies fan, not much into expanded universe except Clone Wars cartoon which i plan to watch).
As an almost Lvl.85 semi-f2p player (yeah i bought crystals during X-Mas because it was double-drops, anything else seems overpriced and casino-style - sorry, i want to get something concrete when i pay for it), i am somewhat annoyed and concerned about the current direction the game is "strolling" right now from my perspective: release more chars a.s.a.p. thereby creating a potentional budget resource, stall individual character development whilst there are already around 100 characters ingame by placing gear pieces in too few game levels while making droprates so low (especially mods with good stats and character shards) that they push our will to continue with this droprate RNG bogus to its maximum limit ever so often - instead of a little more guarantees that the paying customer actually gets something for his and her bucks, should he decide to fund the game. Some things fine and well, the game needs to earn money (and the awesome people who work on it ofc.) but you have one of the most prestigious trademarks on this planet at your hands, playing with it like a child until it breaks its toy by accident and lack of foresight. That's exactly the reason i write this post - it's a pack of quite a few suggestions for the game while trying to stay realistic.
It would seem a good time to emancipate from the game's founding phase where it needs big bucks (kudos to those who have been crazy enough to purchase ingame "wares") and - from a neutral person's standpoint - laughable ingame pricing system by actually making more realistic ingame prices, affordable by the last 20 people you walked by during your last walk in the street downtown. Take this advice as what it is or not, coming from someone who likes Star Wars in general and sees potentional in "making SWGOH greater again".

For starters, changing the default ingame "room" to something more appropriate to the glory that is all Star Wars would be a nice move. You could, for example, let the player choose a dark side or light side "layout" (add other layouts later for Separatists, Jedi, Republic, First Order, SW Rebels, Bounty Hunters, all these ingame factions - people would even pay for such cosmetic stuff) and instead the casino tables present us the Imperial Fleet/Rebel Fleet with different "ships" to click in order to reach the desired battle destination (click the Assault Shuttle, enter GW room; click the planet in the background, enter guild's base; click the Super-Stardestroyer/Home One, enter LS/DS battles; click the Nebulon-B frigate, enter store etc.etc. - be creative people!).

There are many characters and movie moments in the classic Trilogy (EP4-6) and the Prequels to provide you more than enough income with the material, perhaps too much to handle in a mobile game. But who knows, given time and budget, maybe you might convert SWGOH into a PC platform-based game, kinda like Blizzard's Hearthstone which went the other way around. Plus there is the factor "time": soon EP8 and 9 will be released and there will be much material to potentionally cover anyway, that is why i had the idea of actually skipping EP4+5 material and go straight to a...

=== ... D E A T H S T A R - 2 - R A I D ===
aka The Battle of Endor

Q: Why Return of the Jedi ?
We have more than enough characters players can work on (and if not, lower the drop rate for Stun Cuffs and Furnaces so we stay occupied - starting to need these myself slowly :s ).
We have ships, not many but enough for aspiring fleet commanders to look forward to improve these.
From what i see, most players currently only do Fleet Arena to get Zetas as ultimate goal which doesnt sound very exciting anymore in a few weeks or months).

This opens up a possibility to make a new, unique raid with both components mixed: Space Battle phases and classic squad Ground Battling.

Q: Why a mixed scenario raid instead just a huge fleet battle ?
Simple: in ROTJ there were two parallel plots going on: the ground battle on the forest moon Endor and the Fleet Battle between the Rebel and Imperial Fleets with the Death Star looming in the background, ready to fire at any moment.
Another reason is, we have all many characters for ground squads but only a few ships to actually form many fleet "squads". This provides an opportunity to add new ships to the game which we all love from the classics and don't have to watch 100 episodes from expanded universe cartoons:

Q: Don't we have enough "Rebel"-faction characters already ?
Yes. And for that purpose, i suggest adding 2 new factions, like you did with the SW-Rebels characters. These new factions are meant consist of new characters and ships contained within this article and reflect their affiliation to the "Return of the Jedi" movie and in particular the Battle of Endor.

Faction 1 - Light Side: "Rebel Fleet" (no ingame synergy with "Rebels")
Faction 2 - Dark Side: "Imperial Navy" (no ingame synergy with "Empire")

Q: I haven't got a clue about the Battle of Endor, what should i do ?
Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_620998213&feature=iv&src_vid=xPZigWFyK2o&v=94rlYxLd1Qg

NOTE: i used mostly the SW Customizable Card Game ship and pilot names as reference which used to be canon at its time or as close to it as it could.
Link: http://www.starwarsccg.org/cardlists/DeathStar2Type.html

Light Side Ships:
A-Wing (fastest Rebel interceptor fighter in the days of DS2)
B-Wing (slow, durable bombers with great firepower)
X-Wing (yeah we have Biggs+Wedge, but there were other good pilots aswell in the movies *cough*Jek Porkins*cough*)
Y-Wing (predecessor to the B-Wing bomber, a little faster, stronger firepower than X-Wing but slower than X-Wing and A-Wing)
Red-5 (Farmerboy Luke's X-Wing, ANH - give him a ship at least, for god's sake)
Red-6 (Jek Porkins' X-Wing, ANH)
Millenium Falcon (EP6 "Gold Leader", more regarding that later)

Capital Ship: Mon Calamari Star Cruiser MC80-"Liberty" (first to get hit by DS2 laser)
Capital Ship: Nebulon-B-Class Frigate "Redemption" (medical and fleet recuperation frigate seen in the movies)

Light Side Pilots
Gold Leader (General Calrissian in Millennium Falcon EP6)
Red Squadron Leader (Wedge EP6)
Green Squadron Leader (A-Wing // Arvel Crynyd)
Gray Squadron Leader (Y-Wing // Horton Salm (Endor Battle) OR Garven Dreis - KIA@Deah Star 1 trench run, but who cares))
Blue Squadron Leader (B-Wing // Merrick Simms)

Dark Side Ships:
TIE-Interceptor (fast attacker starfighter)
TIE-Bomber (slow, durable bombers with great firepower)
TIE-Advanced (more expanded universe stuff, but hey :expressionless: , fast TIE-Ship with shields and slightly lower firepower than TIE-Bomber)
TIE-Fighter (there were many great TIE pilots in the vast imperial fleet who didn't get enough credit in the movies)

Capital Ship: STDestroyer "Devastator" (Vader's Ship in ANH + Rogue-1, Admiral Jhared Montferrat @Endor Battle)
Capital Ship: Death Squadron STDestroyer "Avenger" (possible Pilot Captain Piett OR Admiral Ozzel OR Captain Needa (Captain in TESB chocked by Vader)) - Death Squadron STD's were the Escort ships of the Flagship Executor
Capital Ship: Interdictor-Class Cruiser "Constrainer"
The Interdictor cruiser was a general term for a class of vessels employed by the Galactic Empire with the technology to generate a gravity well, which would prevent nearby vessels from entering hyperspace.
Useful Link: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Interdictor-class_Star_Destroyer

Dark Side Pilots
(haven't researched pilot names, but there must be named outstanding pilots out there, defending the peace and prosperity of Imperial Space against the cowardly sneak attacks of the Rebel Alliance and their lawless pawns ! <3 )
Useful Link: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/TIE_pilot ("notable Pilots")
Onyx Squad Leader (TIE Advanced, e.g. Maarek Stele)
Saber Squad Leader (TIE Interceptor, e.g. Kasan Moor (female))
Scimitar Squad Leader (TIE Bomber, e.g. Major Rhymer)
Scythe Squad Leader (TIE Fighter, e.g. Baron Soontir Fel, Civé Rashon (female))

Other optional Dark Side Characters
- General Veers: give him synergies with Stormtrooper-type characters.
- Stormtrooper Commander.
- Rocket Trooper.
- Stormtrooper Scout.
Note: We have clones for the light side. Creating a collectible team of Dark Side troopers would totally make sense and boil the Dark Side collector's blood. Plus, players have suggested and shown interest in more Stormtroopers for quite some time now.


Phew, so much regarding ship ideas for now. Back on topic, you see, there is a lot of material to consider that is actually in canon SW. I have not to tell you that these can be useful for both gameplay and us starfleet commanders and the Dev's moneybags. Adding ships of mentioned classes to the game will in addition open up new pathways for future fleet content (note: dark side ships to work with in events, besides providing interesting new things for the time being.


DEATH STAR - 2: Raid Phases
Raid Bonus:
Ewoks, Rebel Fleet and Imperial Navy factions gain boons.

Phase 1: "Endor Strike Team"
Type: Defensive Ground Squad Battle inside the Shield Generator Bunker.
Objective: Destroy as many incoming endless waves of Stormtroopers as possible (classic!)
Special Rules: Stormtroopers take less AOE damage (sorry, Lando!)
Special Ability: "Take Cover" - Squaddie takes reduced damage for 1 turn. (like during the ingame event "Endor Battles VS those berserking Ewoks).
Enrage Timer: Squad gets overwhelmed and captured after a set amount of turns.

Description: Enemy AI spawns different types and combinations of Stormtroopers who assault the player's squad. Phase ends when a set amount of Stormtroopers has been neutralized.

Phase 2: "Fighters Coming In !"
Type: Defensive Fleet Squad Battle.
Objective: Defend the capital ship from incoming waves of TIE's and an Imperial Star Destroyer as enemy Fleet Commander.
Special Rules: Enemy Bombers (TIE-Bomber, Y-Wing, B-Wing) do most damage to the Capital Ship (possibly reduce turn meter on hits) and must be destroyed as top priority. Each time an enemy ship gets destroyed, the capital ship regenerates a portion of its shields to prolong the fight until enrage.
Special Ability: "Take the Lead" - Exchange the squadron leader with another ship from the REINFORCEMENT POOL (see "Description" below).
Enrage Timer: Death Star 2 Superlaser fires and destroys the capital ship after a set amount of turns. Phase ends when enough incoming TIE squadrons has been neutralized.

Description: Now, this is something totally new i came up with and could work well.
REINFORCEMENT POOL MECHANIC: The Player chooses during squad selection the ships as usual. However, he is only allowed to use 1 of those at a time during the actual battle. The remaining fleet squad members during the battle are composed of 1 of each starfighter-type.
Example: Slave-1 (L), Red Squadron X-Wing, Gray Squadron Y-Wing, Green Squadron A-Wing, Blue Squadron B-Wing!
Now, there would be no need to design 100 new ships just for the sake of 1 raid phase. You could simply give the different generic starfighters abilities already ingame. For Example: X-Wings have TIE Pilot's abilities+stats (depending on raid tier OR stats of the Fleet Commander+his ship); Y-Wings have Umbaran Stafighter's abilities; A-Wings have Plo Koon's speedy abilities; B-Wings have heavy AOE firepower like Slave-1. Synergies there would be great to make the phase fun and exciting.


ALTERNATIVE SCENARIO:
Tired of rebels and republic ships? Play the dark side! If the player chooses a dark side Capital Ship, he then has TIE squadrons as fleet and an enemy Mon Calamari Cruiser and rebel starfighter squadrons as opponents. This would give reason to actually collect TIE ships. As a design result, players could get better results in the raid phase (kinda like Clones or Jedi in certain AAT phases), giving another incentive to farm those dark side ship shards and their pilots!


Phase 3: "An entire Legion of Troops is awaiting !"
Type: Offensive Ground Squad Battle
Objective: Bring low the Hit Points of an imperial AT-ST-Walker in order to get access to the Endor Shield generator's control bunker.
Special Rules: Stormtroopers take reduced AOE damage. AT-ST can be toppled by using nearby tree log traps (as seen in the ROTJ movie), Rancor-style!
Special Ability: "Ewok Ambush": Ewoks swarm the battle field and distract the Imperial troops, enabling the player's squad a brief moment of recuperation - equalize the HP of the whole squad (Barris Offee's ability)
Enrage Timer: Squad gets overwhelmed by AT-ST's.

Description: The player's squad faces an imperial AT-ST-Walker, accompanied by imperial Stormtroopers. The phase resembles in its general idea the P3 of the AAT raid with the addition of a possible Boss topple.

Phase 4 "Engagement at Point Blank Range"
Type: Offensive Fleet Squadrons Battle
Objective: Destroy the Super Star Destroyer "Executor" 's command center.
Special: "Concentrated Firepower"
Enrage Timer: Command Ship gets focus fired by Executor, thereby destroyed.

Description: Same rules regarding squadrons like in P2. The difference here would be the main objective: to destroy the Command Center of the SSTD.
How do we do that? Simple: create the command center as a background target. Assaulting it is only possible during a short time window where the whole enemy fleet squad is neutralized and is respawning - sort of a topple mechanic without an actual topple. Imagine it as an opened corridor for the starfighter squadron to slip through and inflict massive damage to the primary target.

Raid Rewards per Tier:
On a foreword, i propose different rewards per tier. This has multiple reasons.
First off, lower level players can also participate and build a char slowly they might use later on in the game, not just grind guild tokens/gear aka Rancor. Guilds with different levels of players will benefit from this most since high players will help low players get something and enforced to do so if they want all Poke...ehh...chars on their rosters. Lower players will be thankful and thus the unity of a guild grows in time.


Tier 1: the long-awaited 5th Ewok character (Wicket or Logray, synergy with Endor Leia + Ewoks)

Tier 2: C3-PO (synergy with Ewoks+R2-D2 proposed)

Tier 3: Chewbacca of Kashyyyk (synergy with Ewoks + Raid Han)

Tier 4: Moff Jerjerrod (Synergy with TIE Squadron Pilots "Imperial Navy" - they guard the DS2 while it's being constructed under his supervision. Yeah, boring patrol duties and code clearance checks, but the Boss is coming for an inspection soon !)

Tier 5: General Calrissian (Millenium Falcon Pilot, synergy with "Rebel Fleet" squad leaders)

Tier 6: Leia, Daughter of Skywalker (Endor Outfit, Synergy with Raid Han)

Tier 7: Luke, Last of the Jedi (Jedi Luke; synergy with Daughter of Skywalker, Raid Han, R2-D2 - make it an obligatory effort to collect and gear the full squad for synergies!)

Tier 8 (HC): Millenium Falcon (EP6) - Pilots: Raid Han (yes, Rancor Han), Chewbacca of Kashyykk, General Calrissian.


Final Note:
I believe it would be awesome for the last raid phase to create a fleet battle scenario that actually reflects the attack on the Death Star's main reactor. I have no knowledge how and if such a thing could be implemented ingame, but personally and probably many players out there would really love to see such a thing. Or at least give us some shiny splashy ingame cutscene with dialogues like during Emperor/Yoda event.


NEW GAME ADDITION - Training Areas for Guilds:
A final suggestion i have for the game would be training rooms. Rebels prepare for their greatest to-come battle during their gathering at Sullust.
The Imperial Army has the Imperial Academy where brave imperial citizens apply and train in order to maintain peace and order throughout the Galactic Empire.
With the suspension of tournaments and people stacking Ally Points, i suggest adding a feature for every player in a guild to "save" one regular squad and one fleet squad. Guildmates can then use ally points to battle one of the "saved" squads from their guildies in order to try out new strategies before doing the "real thing" in the arenas and raids. And finally, some guildmates' discussions who's squad/character would and could beat another guildie's character or squads could be settled more so often with this feature :).


Q: Okay, we have C3-PO and the Skywalker family for synergies, but where is R2-D2?
A: You'll think of something creative, I'm sure.

Q: Why should we add MFalcon as raid reward and not in a fleet packs ship?
A: 1.Because you can add new pilots and ships into shipments + packs already which would be needed to complete the raid faster. 2. EP7 MFalcon is already "available" when you fix the fleet packs and make it "really" available, thus making the purchase of fleet shipments worthwhile - sorry, but the name "Millenium Falcon (EP7)" on a super-rare and expensive ship pack is not definitely enough here, you probably figured that out by now...

Q: Isn't this a lot of new ships proposed ?
A: The ships feature is a great addition to the game with many new possible options and an uncharted future. The way i see it though is, there are very little ship synergies, most of them hidden or behind a paywall (one can only theorize a good combo with Millenium Falcon (EP7). Adding at least 2 more squadron-types would open up new exciting ship combos or preventing a too-quick-to-come-and-then-we-all-hate-it new ship "meta" which would leave the ship aspect of the game more random and fun to play. Alternatively, you could make a new ship challenge for your announced "hardware abilities" (ship mods?) that requires Imperial Navy or Rebel Fleet units to play through.

The big Q: Why should we add Jedi Luke as raid reward and not a character packs character?
A: 1. Because EP8+9 are at our doorsteps already.
2. He is on the game's cover picture in all his glory, yet absent as a playable action figure.
3. He is long overdue.
4. Get it over with already while the game still exists and move on to EP8+9 Luke+Rey+Kylo for bigger bucks.
5. New players will something to strive for until the end of days.


There, that's it. This article is a lot of reading but i had fun creating it and hopefully, someone has reading it all, aswell. And maybe the developer team in their Galaxy far, far away might get something out of it or even incorporate some aspects into their great game, making it better, more true to the original classic movies and the Star Wars canon we all love and hate !
May the Force be with us !


P.S.: Imperial Star Destroyer names are ALWAYS male gender, both in the movies, computer games and expanded universe - Executrix is the female latin version of Executor, really really poor and uncreative choice there, people !
Post edited by Weltall on

Replies

  • 3Cheers4Tyranny
    2084 posts Member
    edited April 2017
    Good write up, just one problem - shards in all teirs would split up guilds arguing over if they should put ROTJ Luke or Millennium Falcon on farm status.
  • Georgemi6
    1236 posts Member
    Dude, this is a solid price of work. Nicely done. I really like the idea you had for phase one- it's kind of like phase 1 of the AAT but no grevious. It's a cool idea. One thing I propose is the addition of a 5th and 6th phase: phase 5 is vs Vader and the emperor, with bonuses for jedi, and phase 6 is in the reacted core, with a similar idea to phase one, with waves of tie fighters. There could also be some turbo laser batteries that you fight against. I dunno. Either way, this is a really cool idea
  • Weltall
    98 posts Member
    @ 3Cheers4Tyranny
    The raid tier rewards section of the draft is merely a skeletal construct (only proposed characters without any actual fixed skillset in mind except synergies) with one mainstream idea:
    to keep all tiers valuable for both new and old players and forcing the big guy players from older shards with g10 to think twice before straight to jumping into heroic - you cant fly a ship without the pilots from previous tiers. And you cant beat higher tiers most efficiently with the lack of earlier tiers' characters and their synergies.
  • Stav
    34 posts Member
    I really do like the rewards to introduce characters. It would take a lot of coordination. Maybe it would be a different guild currency reward to buy the one you want? Well said though.
  • Awesome, awesome, awesome idea!! I hope they pull through with even at least half of the great concepts and details you put into this work. This game is long over due for Raid Han synergy with Chewie and Lando as well as new characters and ships! The only problem I see is guilds fighting over what tier to do... perhaps if I were to take first in my guild, then I get 2,000 personal currency (or whatever it's called) then I can either save up and spend 4,000 for 8 shards of the MFalcon (ep.6) or 3,800 for 10 Jedi Luke shards, or 3,500 for 8 Leia shards, and onwards to about 1,200 for 5 Logray/Wicket shards. Idk really, but it would be nice to do tier 8 yet still farm, say, C-3PO that way your are rewarded with more for placing 1st and doing higher tiers.
  • Fantastic work. So many great suggestions.

    Biggest one - concrete value for money spent and realistic price points.

    I would gladly spend $50 - $100 a month for value. If a character could get to g11 for $15 - $20 as opposed to $200 - $300, I'd be more inclined to spend.
  • Regarding the character shards guys, i think you misunderstood my concept.
    The idea was not to add the character shards into the guild shipments, but into the raid reward crates themselves - like Han Solo + General Kenobi shards in the heroic AAT raid.

    On the flip side, the characters shouldn't be anything gamebreaking either, just a fun team the players can collect and stay competitive with, with a slight edge for the raid itself.
    On another note, the new Millenium Falcon could also be slightly weaker than EP7's, from a narrative standpoint Han+Chewie most likely added a lot of modifications to it before they "lost" it and Rey+Finn rediscovered it on Jakku.
  • It sounds really interesting but there will be no Death Star Raid. Believe me. :/
  • I stopped reading when he suggested lower drop rate for stun cuffs, are you for real? :O
  • Weltall
    98 posts Member
    That's the latecomer April Fool's joke :)
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