It's been a long time coming, but it's time to make Jedi vs Sith: IX, the ninth version of my flagship series server. Focusing on what made 2.0 and 5.0 great will be essential. The primary goal is to recreate and reinvigorate older style systems without adding too much "MMO" feeling - despite Jedi vs Sith being a mini-mmorpg.
Last updated 5/8/2024
This quest system will be unlike any other that has been created before. Instead of talking to a mundane NPC to get a generic quest that everyone else has done, you will get a dynamic quest designed by your Masters and superiors tailored to your capabilities. Your master will be able to select an objective such as "Kill X Npcs on X planet.", "Capture Tatooine", "Defeat 3 Jedi Padawans or above", "Find the relic on X planet" and etcetera.
We will, of course, have a custom lightsaber. This combat system has mixed in the simplicity of the old systems while maintaining the cunning skill based system from the later jedi vs sith servers. There will be two phases of combat, Blocking & Attacking. Each phase will have a secondary skill based effect if you correctly perform the requirement. Your combo number and your directional indicator will be shown on your hud as well as above your head for other players to see. This will make Lightsaber combat a mini-game of chess where you have a shotgun pointed at each other's King - one wrong move and you're dead.
Each animation set features three directional attacks, Forward, Left & Right. We could do more, but I feel like this would dilute the effect of the skill based defenses in Phase 1 & 2.
Players will have a set of blocking animations based on their attack direction ← ↑ →. If you match your opponent's attack direction, for example your opponent attacks ↑ and your block is ↑ then you will get the reward of stunning your opponent allowing you a small window for a counter attack, this small stun will mean they are unable to block it - so long as you react in time! Blocking will take your force away over time, it's a guaranteed block with a chance to stun your opponent but it will drain you quickly!
Players are given a set of attack animations based on their attack direction ← ↑ →. When players match the same attack direction, for example you both use the → attack, then you will both auto parry and your blades will clash, this will enact a free block for that attack meaning nobody takes any damage from it. If done correctly, a player can master the aggressive method of never blocking and only parrying incoming attacks.
Just like Jedi vs Sith 2.0 we will have harmony zones that offer anywhere from 2x to 10x experience points gained, the harmony zones will be the best place to train with your friends.
We have ported many models from Jedi Survivor which allow us to create the most customizable lightsaber to date. You will be able to edit not only the externals but the internals of the lightsaber.
You will be able to choose the following components on your lightsaber: Pommel, Grip, Trigger & Emitter. You will be able to edit the "Skin" or the material the component is made of, such as hammered metal, leather, wood, and even some faux materials such as wrap style textures. You will also be able to add a "Dye" to the component to change the color of the "Material". The content for this system as-is is a little over 16gb, which is why we have created a system where only the textures you encounter you download in real time. In future expansions we will be retro-fitting older sabers and chopping them up into pieces to fit within our system. However this will take time.
You will have the following internal components to upgrade on your lightsaber: Power Tuner, Efficiency Module, Inner Reactor, Arc Unit & Kyber Crystal. The Power Tuner will act as the part of your blade that will refine the length of your blade allowing you a further reach for your lightsaber. The Efficiency Module will be the source of your percentile damage modifier to further increase the power of your lightsaber. The Inner Reactor will aid in the reduction of force usage when blocking allowing you to survive longer. The Arc Unit will determine the overall shape of your blade allowing you to have a different shape for your blade. Finally, the Kyber Crystal will determine the color of your blade, whether it is corrupted or not, and the base damage for your lightsaber as well as any effects that come with it.
Crystals deserve their own major category as they are a system in and of themselves. There will be Types of crystals with a Rarity for each of them. The highest rarity of each crystal will come with a special effect, meaning we will no longer have "Vexxtal" being worse than "Rubat" typically. There will be some differences where one is better than the other at lower tier, but the main goal is that all high rarity crystals can compete with one another. The special effects that the high grade crystals give are planned to be such as, 10% chance to stun target, x% force leech, x% health leech, and etcetera.
The Rarities are as follows: Common, Grand, Rare, Epic, Heroic, Unique, Mythic, Artifact, Legendary, Celestial, Transcendent & Primordial. When obtaining crystals through mining, you will have a chance to get up to Epic rarity through mining, albeit rare. When obtaining a crystal through boss drops you will be able to obtain up to Artifact. The 4 remaining ranks of Legendary, Celestial, Transcendent and Primordial, with Primordial being special effect rarity, must be obtained through regrading the crystal.
You can change the rarity grade of your crystal through regrade items. The higher your rarity is the less of a chance you have to succeed, and the higher the chance of destroying the item becomes. Your crystal may do nothing and remain the same grade, it may go down a grade, it may go up a grade or it could destroy itself entirely. The higher grades are more and more dangerous to achieve, but the rewards are definitely worth it.
Thanks to the ingenuity of Zhrom, we have devised a system that allows us full RGB usage for our crystal colors. We will have a set of 20 or so primary colors including variants of main colors (Blood Red, Ruby Red, etc). That color will be displayed in the description of the crystal, then a CSGO style pattern will be selected through math to randomly choose how close to that color it is. So your Blood Red crystal may be darker or lighter based on the randomly chosen number. This means every crystal is truly unique, allowing for the cosmetics and damage of the blade to become a commodity players will want. The quest for the perfect lightsaber crystal will be forever!
Players will be able to corrupt (& Cleanse) their crystals to change the inner color of the blade from white to black and black to white, however this will come with a chance to permanently destroy the crystal as well as it can ruin the Pattern of the crystal making the color muddier. A high level is highly recommended to corrupt or cleanse a crystal!
You will start as untrained then you will slowly learn new forms over time. Each form will remain useful and provide different types of rewards, some forms will be just "better" than other forms but will be increasingly harder to unlock. You will have a level in each form from 1 to 3. Each level unlocks a set of moves to use which are typically better than the previous set. Each swing you do will start at 1, if you attack quickly again it goes to 2, and then 3 then back to 1. This is the combo system, it allows you to build up your power shots and adds another layer of skill to the combat system.
A fan favorite is the world bosses that spawned every so often and had good loot. However this time the loot won't be so global! The rewards will be higher grade & there will be less of them. The highest performing players will be randomly chosen through and given the reward items. All participating players will have a chance at loot as well albeit a lower percentage chance, and finally all players will be given XP based on the boss level and their performance.
Battling over planets is a staple of Jedi vs Sith, the automatic planet control system is essential for us to have player to player interaction, each planet will give you a buff of XP, money & force. Losing a planet should hurt, gaining one should feel good!
There will be two types of holocrons, regular holocrons and ancient holocrons. The regular holocrons will act as faction-wide buffs that must be in your faction's vault. Ancient holocrons will contain full unlocks of the ancient form, medium level powers both dark and light as well as high level powers both dark and light. It will take upwards of an hour for one player to open, or multiple players can aid in opening the holocron. Once opened, one player may obtain the reward of the holocron - these are high reward as you have to defend them for a long time - oh and everyone can see where it is at all times and it cannot be moved from its location.
Players will learn forms and force powers over time either alone or with the aid of your teacher, you will have a higher chance to pass with the aid of a tutor and gain more xp with the aid of a tutor, and it will be all automated with a system which will detect if you are near your tutor. No more staff to grant you your powers meaning you can peacefully train at 4am when everyone else is asleep while you're binged out on mountain dew and JvS.
Players will be able to duel each other and not die and will be restored to the health, force and etc. they had prior to the duel. They will be given a rank which will be based on a hidden MMR system that will calculate their wins and losses and is adjusted to compensate the rank of your enemy, defeat a higher ranked player - gain a lot of MMR, lose to a lower ranked player lose a lot of MMR.