[2008/05/06 note: The following was originally written (and later modified) well before Jump to Lightspeed, the space expansion to the base Star Wars Galaxies, was released. At this point it's mostly interesting as a kind of alternate-universe path that SWG might have taken, although I could swear some of the features described here actually did make it into JtL....]
The subject of space-related skills has been coming up more often recently, so I thought I'd give it a thread of its own.
I'll start things off with the latest version of what I've been developing.
**** SKILLS ****
SPACEHAND PROFESSION
- Master Spacehand
- Piloting +5 (50)
- Carrier pilot certificate
- Navigation +10 (50)
- Shields +5 (50)
- Gunnery +10 (50)
- Missiles/Torpedoes +5 (50)
- Cargo Storage +5 (50)
- Scanning +5 (25)
- Starship Pilot Discipline ["Starship Pilot"]
- Starship Pilot Specialist
- Piloting +10
- Command: /autodestruct
- Cruiser pilot certificate
- Expert Starship Pilot
- Piloting +10
- Destroyer pilot certificate
- Advanced Starship Pilot
- Piloting +5
- Command: /overdrive
- Frigate pilot certificate
- Intermediate Starship Pilot
- Piloting +10
- Shuttle pilot certificate
- Starship Navigator Discipline ["Starship Navigator"]
- Starship Navigation Specialist
- Navigation +10
- Shields +10
- Expert Navigation
- Navigation +5
- Shields +10
- Advanced Navigation
- Navigation +5
- Shields +5
- Intermediate Navigation
- Navigation +10
- Shields +10
- Starship Combat Discipline ["Starship Gunner"]
- Starship Combat Specialist
- Gunnery +10
- Missiles/Torpedoes +10
- Command: /overload
- Expert Starship Combat
- Gunnery +5
- Missiles/Torpedoes +15
- Advanced Starship Combat
- Gunnery +5
- Missiles/Torpedoes +10
- Intermediate Starship Combat
- Gunnery +10
- Missiles/Torpedoes 10
- Starship Operations Discipline ["Starship Ops Officer"]
- Starship Operations Specialist
- Scanning +5
- Cargo Storage +10
- Command: /transponder [ID]
- Expert Starship Operations
- Scanning +5
- Cargo Storage +10
- Command: /sensorlock
- Advanced Starship Operations
- Scanning +5
- Cargo Storage +15
- Command: /sensorjam
- Intermediate Starship Operations
- Scanning 5
- Cargo Storage +10
- Command: /scan
- Novice Spacehand
- Piloting 10
- Starfighter pilot certificate
- Freighter pilot certificate
- Navigation 10
- Gunnery 10
- Shields 10
- Command: /dock
STARSHIP ENGINEER PROFESSION
- Master Starship Engineer
- Schematic:
- Structure: Space Station
- Vehicle: Carrier
- Starship Assembly +15 (75)
- Starship Experimentation +15 (75)
- Starship Hull Repair +15 (50)
- Starship Avionics Repair +10 (50)
- Starship Engine Repair +10 (50)
- Starship Weapon Repair +10 (50)
- Salvage +15 (50) (hulls)
- Starship Design Discipline ["Starship Architect"]
- Starship Design Specialist
- Schematic:
- Starship Hull: Carrier
- Starship Weapons - Advanced
- Starship Experimentation +15
- Expert Starship Design
- Schematic:
- Starship Hull: Cruiser
- Starship Avionics - Advanced
- Starship Engines - Advanced
- Starship Experimentation +10
- Advanced Starship Design
- Schematic:
- Starship Hull: Destroyer
- Starship Weapons - Improved
- Starship Experimentation +15
- Intermediate Starship Design
- Schematic:
- Starship Hull: Frigate
- Starship Avionics - Improved
- Starship Engines - Improved
- Starship Experimentation +10
- Starship Construction Discipline ["Starship Constructor"]
- Starship Construction Specialist
- Schematic:
- Structure: Orbital Construction Yard
- Vehicle: Cruiser
- Starship Assembly +15
- Expert Starship Construction
- Schematic:
- Vehicle: Destroyer
- Starship Customization 2
- Starship Assembly +10
- Advanced Starship Construction
- Schematic:
- Vehicle: Frigate
- Droid Construction Techniques
- Starship Assembly +15
- Intermediate Starship Construction
- Schematic:
- Vehicle: Shuttle
- Starship Customization 1
- Starship Assembly +10
- Starship Maintenance Discipline ["Starship Repair Chief"]
- Starship Maintenance Specialist
- Starship Weapons Repair +20
- Starship Avionics Repair +10
- Starship Engine Repair +10
- Expert Starship Maintenance
- Starship Weapons Repair +10
- Starship Avionics Repair +15
- Starship Engine Repair +10
- Advanced Starship Maintenance
- Starship Avionics Repair +5
- Starship Engine Repair +10
- Starship Hull Repair +15
- Intermediate Starship Maintenance
- Starship Avionics Repair +10
- Starship Engine Repair +5
- Starship Hull Repair +10
- Starship Salvage Discipline ["Starship Salvager"]
- Starship Salvage Specialist
- Salvage +15 (engines)
- Expert Starship Salvage
- Salvage +10 (weapons)
- Advanced Starship Salvage
- Salvage +10 (avionics)
- Intermediate Starship Salvage
- Command: /salvage
- Novice Starship Engineer
- Schematic:
- Starship Hull: Freighter
- Starship Hull: Shuttle
- Starship Hull: Starfighter
- Starship Assembly 10
- Starship Experimentation 10
- Starship Engine Repair 5
- Starship Hull Repair 10
- Starship Avionics - Basic
- Starship Engines - Basic
- Starship Weapons - Basic
- Vehicle: Freighter
- Vehicle: Starfighter
**** DEFINITIONS ****
Cargo Storage: Knowledge of efficient cargo handling procedures allows more cargo to be carried.
Command: /autodestruct: If the command is repeated within 30 seconds, the vessel will explode. (Note: Only the designated captain of the vessel can give this command.)
Command: /dock: Allows vessels carrying cargo or passengers to dock (with consent) to space stations or (with consent, or without consent if the captain is an overt of an opposing faction) other vessels.
Command: /overdrive: Significantly increases maximum normal-space speed for a short time, but degrades the condition of your ion drives by a random but significant amount.
Command: /overload: Significantly increases damage done by the next ship's weapon fired, but degrades the condition of that weapon by a random but significant amount.
Command: /salvage: Searches and retrieves one advanced component, avionics system, weapons system, starship engine, or starship hull from a complex debris field in space. Only one salvage operation may be performed on a debris field.
Command: /scan: Performs a scan of a targeted starship's cargo hold. With increasing skill may be able to detect smuggled cargo.
Command: /sensorjam: Activates a sensor jamming system (if installed) to reduce the ability of other vessels to gain targeting lockons -- works like the Scout "/maskscent" command. (Does not affect capital ship targeting; may be defeated by the /sensorlock command.)
Command: /sensorlock: Improves the likelihood of establishing a target lock on another starship.
Command: /transponder [ID]: Allows the ship's ID transponder to be reset to a user-selected ID for three minutes. (Note: Any ship seen using using this feature is considered to be a pirate. Any vessel within range when the transponder reset expires will gain a TEF on the vessel that reset its ID code.)
Droid Construction Techniques: Reduces the time and resources required to construct vessels and structures intended for space.
Gunnery: Increases the base accuracy and damage of ship's blasters, lasers, ion cannons, and similar direct-fire weapons.
Missiles/Torpedoes: Reduces the time required to launch missiles and torpedos and to deploy mines. (Speed, tracking accuracy, and potential damage are determined by the missile/torpedo/mine itself.)
Navigation: Reduces the time required to calculate hyperspace coordinates, and improves the accuracy of arrival positions.
Piloting: Increases maximum ship speed and decreases turning time. (Works like the Scout "Terrain Negotiation" skill.)
Salvage: Increases the chances of finding a salvagable item as well as the value and quality of a salvaged item.
Scanning: Works like the Scout "Creature Knowledge" skill; returns more information with higher skill levels. Also increases the chances of detecting contraband cargo aboard freighters.
Schematic: Starship Avionics - Advanced: Create schematics for the best starship avionics packages.
Schematic: Starship Avionics - Basic: Create schematics for simple starship avionics packages.
Schematic: Starship Avionics - Improved: Create schematics for starship avionics packages superior to basic models.
Schematic: Starship Engines - Advanced: Create schematics for the best hyperspace and sublight engines.
Schematic: Starship Engines - Basic: Create schematics for simple hyperdrive and sublight engines.
Schematic: Starship Engines - Improved: Create schematics for hyperspace and sublight engines superior to basic models.
Schematic: Starship Weapons - Advanced: Create schematics for the best starship weapons systems.
Schematic: Starship Weapons - Basic: Create schematics for simple starship weapons systems.
Schematic: Starship Weapons - Improved: Create schematics for starship weapons systems superior to basic models.
Schematic: Starship Hull - Carrier: Allows construction of ships based on very large multi-person hull whose primary purpose is to carry starfighters into combat. The number of starfighters carried will vary with the designer's Starship Assembly skill level.
Schematic: Starship Hull - Cruiser: Allows construction of ships based on large multi-person hull whose primary purpose is combat.
Schematic: Starship Hull - Destroyer: Allows construction of ships based on medium multi-person hull whose primary purpose is combat.
Schematic: Starship Hull - Freighter: Allows construction of ships based on small multi-person hull whose primary purpose is to carry cargo.
Schematic: Starship Hull - Frigate: Allows construction of ships based on small multi-person hull whose primary purpose is combat.
Schematic: Starship Hull - Shuttle: Creates a schematic for construction of ships based on small multi-person hull whose primary purpose is to transport personnel.
Schematic: Starship Hull - Starfighter: Allows construction of ships based on single-person hull whose primary purpose is combat.
Schematic: Structure - Orbital Construction Yard: Allows a permanent construction yard to be built in the space above a planet. This yard is required to construct capital ships. The cost in resources to produce one of these will be extremely high.
Schematic: Structure - Space Station: Creates a schematic for a permanent station to be built in the space above a planet. This is a large structure containing its own Bazaar, empty lots for residences and shops, and up to 100 docking ports for starships. The cost in resources to produce one of these will be... astronomical.
Shields: Decreases time required to modify shield configurations, and may offer more intricate configuration possibilities. (Shield strength and recharge rate are determined by the type and quality of shield system purchased and fitted.)
Starship Assembly: Allows the construction of components, vessels and structures intended for space. Higher skill levels allow more complex items to be crafted.
Starship Customization 1: Allows the starship constructor to use a customization kit to alter the frame and trim colors of a starship's hull.
Starship Customization 2: Offers more colors for customizing a starship's exterior.
Starship Experimentation: Allows the improvement of components, vessels and structures intended for space. Higher skill levels improve various qualities (durability/toughness, effectiveness/damage, etc.) of crafted items.
Starship Repair - Avionics: Increases ability to repair ship's avionics packages.
Starship Repair - Engines: Increases ability to repair ship's hyperdrive and sublight engines.
Starship Repair - Hulls: Increases ability to repair ship's hull. (Note: Capital ships with damage levels above 50% can only be repaired at an orbital construction yard.)
Starship Repair - Weapons: Increases ability to repair ship's weapons systems.
**** DESIGNER'S NOTES ****
These two professions and the skills developed for them came out of an attempt to sit down and actually itemize the space-related skills seen in the five Star Wars movies we've seen so far:
SKILL SETS (and their users)
Starting with this list I tried to organize it into professions composed of four disciplines. I wound up with just about enough disciplines for three full professions, so after some tweaking I got:- Operations
- Piloting (Han, Luke, Lando, Wedge, Anakin/Vader)
- Navigation (Han, Chewbacca)
- Weapons (Han, Luke, Vader, etc.)
- Shields/Tractors (Han, Red Leader, Gold Five; Han, Obi-Wan)
- Sensors/Jammers/Masks (Han; Boba Fett)
- Fleet Operations (Dodonna, Ackbar)
- Support
- Starship Design (Han, Vader, Wedge)
- Starship Repair (Han, Chewbacca, R2-D2)
v2.0 DISCIPLINES
Since requiring "good" players to learn "bad" skills (piracy in particular) was objectionable to some people, I then further compressed these three skill sets from my version 2.0 space profession list down into the two-profession version shown here.- Starship Crew
- Starship Piloting
- Starship Navigation
- Starship Weapons
- Starship Avionics
- Starship Engineer
- Starship Design
- Starship Construction
- Starship Repair
- Starship Salvage
- Starship Operator
- Space Transport
- Asteroid Mining
- Cargo Smuggling
- Piracy
PILOTING: Based on previous developer comments and available visuals, the Space Expansion is expected to be "twitch modified by type and quality of ship systems modified by character skills." What I hope that means is this: your maximum possible turn speed in a dogfight should be determined firstly by the type of starship you're piloting (an X-wing should turn faster than a Y-wing), secondly by the rating and condition/effectiveness of your ship's engines (an X-wing with great engines should turn better than an X-wing with lousy engines), thirdly by your Piloting skill level (a great pilot flying Ship X will turn better than an average pilot flying Ship X), and lastly by your real-world reflexes and Internet connection speed. This system is thus still "twitch," but it's also still an RPG.
SHIP CERTS: I think it's appropriate to offer bigger and better ships to players who advance through the skill levels of the Starship Pilot discipline, rather than basing what ships you're permitted to fly on kill stats, or pure stick time, or faction points. Faction may control what type of ship you can fly, but it shouldn't be the only thing governing what size of ship you can fly (assuming there are both military and non-military craft in the same size class). Making better ships available through training motivates players to participate in the skills system and its related missions. This should encourage players to seek out rich game content rather than simply being the best at beating up on other players. There are other games that offer that mode of gameplay.
SHIELDS: Although Shields could be considered an Operations skill, I put the this skill in the Starship Navigation profession because that profession needed something other than the Navigation skill, and because the Starship Operations discipline already had too many skills in it. Plus navigation and shield control are two of the things Han kept yelling at Chewbacca to do.
SENSOR JAMMING: Electronic Warfare (EW) isn't really described much in the movies, but the official Lucasfilm documents clearly state that A-wings and other Rebel craft have a "sensor jamming" (i.e, ECM) feature. So I spent some time tweaking EW for play balance and "fun" factor. Since I added this skill making it harder to acquire targeting lockons, I also added a "/sensorlock" command (i.e., ECCM) to give the other guy a chance to hit.
NOVICE SPACEHAND: The Novice Spacehand skills are the minimum necessary to let players get out into space for combat and commerce as soon as the Space Expansion ships. I didn't even really need Shields for novices; it just fit better numerically that way.
NOVICE STARSHIP ENGINEER: Like the Novice Spacehand, the Novice Starship Engineer has enough of the fundamental skills to be useful in the Space Expansion right away -- he can build starfighters and freighters, equip them with basic engines, weapons and avionics, and fix the expensive bits when they take damage. (That would be hulls and engines. Weapons and avionics will have to be replaced or repaired by NPCs until there are Expert Starship Maintenance Engineers. This is for economic as well as skill balance reasons.) It's not certain that players will be able to create capital ships, but freighters and starfighters are pretty certain, so I started with them.
ADVANCED ENGINEERING SKILLS: The Starship Engineer profession depends on a large number of "ifs." I have no idea if players will be allowed to build capital ships (not to mention space structures such as orbital construction yards and space stations). The Starship Engineer just looked really bare if those abilities aren't there! So I left them in... and yes, I certainly do hope they make it into the Expansion.
STARSHIP ENGINEERING SCHEMATICS: I split engines, weapons and avionics into three groups of schematics: Basic, Improved, and Advanced to provide a motivation for players to progress through the skill levels of a discipline, in this case the Starship Designer. Also it's important to realize that all the schematic names I've given (such as "Starship Engines - Improved") are just placeholders for schematics to create specific items of that type whose names I can't guess yet. In the actual game you'd see schematics for actual components, such as "Advanced Ion Drive", "Quad Blaster Cannon", "Hyperdrive Computer Mark III", and so on.
STARSHIP SYSTEMS: For Starship Engineering, I elected to split up starship systems into four parts: hull, engines, weapons, and avionics. This is a reasonable breakdown of a starship that fits neatly into the four-by-four disciplines and professions of SWG -- the design, construction and maintenance disciplines fit together very nicely this way. Even salvage works with this format.
SALVAGE: Speaking of salvage, I've included this discipline because a number of people asked for it. On the principle that the most valuable item ought to be hardest to get, the novice starts off being able to salvage advanced components ("Look, sir -- droids!"), then works his way up to hulls. If you can salvage a hull, you could actually create a new starship from it, so it would be extremely valuable; that's why it's only available once you've achieved Mastery of the entire profession.
CONSTRUCTION: A close examination of the Engineering disciplines will reveal that you can create and improve starship components in the Starship Design discipline, but you have to learn the skills in the Starship Construction discipline to actually be able to build starships. This is deliberate -- piling all construction skills into one discipline made that discipline far too powerful compared to the other disciplines in the profession. The split allows players to specialize, and (depending on how many space-related skill points are offered) will help prevent too many players from being both great Pilots and great Engineers.
CUSTOMIZATION: Starship customization is limited to specifying frame and trim colors using a customization kit. I'd also like to see decals available. Best would be if the hull designer could specify different visual configurations of hulls and large subsystems through the Starship Customization 2 skill, but that may be asking too much.
TRANSPONDERS: I don't know if ship ID transponders will be included in the Space Expansion. I hope so -- and if they are, then I hope the /transponder command as I've described it will be in there, too. It's not really necessary, but if piracy is meant to be a playable option, it sure would be helpful (and fun) to have.
DOCKING: If space stations won't be in the game, and docking with other ships won't be permitted, then this command is unnecessary... but I'm hoping those things will be in the Space Expansion. Obviously there'll have to be careful attention paid to the game mechanisms for who is allowed to dock with whom and when. We don't want griefing (say it with me!), but the roleplaying possibilities inherent in being able to swarm aboard an enemy ship to try to capture it are just too juicy to ignore.
FLEET OPERATIONS: I didn't get to implement Fleet Operations, so there's nothing here for the would-be Admiral Dodonna or Ackbar. I find that disappointing, but it just didn't fit into the scheme. Was that wrong?
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