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1.11 Beta General and Legends Thoughts
Before playing the Beta, I've only skimmed through the changelog. Mostly for the saber. For Open I remembered that something to do with the movement was changed. These are my thoughts from the blind play of one hour of Legends.
Crashes
Right from the start I had problems with the Beta. I kept crashing while on JAMP. The crashing was happening while loading the map on the Legends server. The log wasn't created during the first crash, I checked to see what has happened. Later the log files were created. "Exception Code: 0xC0000005 (Access Violation)" being in them all. That tells me nothing. Only once I have managed to load the map. After a few minutes of playing, I crashed. This time I have crashed with yellow text console dump showing up. I haven't made a screenshot of that but the message was similar or the same as one I got when I crashed later on OpenJK. It was "Out of ghoul2 info slot" or "Your ghoul instance has no slots". This message was repeatedly created in the console in the first seconds since entering the server. On OpenJK those lines stopped showing up after a bit and hasn't shown up to the end of my playtime on Legends server. Haven't noticed those lines on a Duel server.
Since I was crashing on JAMP, I switched to OpenJK. On it I was able to enter the server without a problem. I chose a class and waited for a new round to start. The moment the round was supposed to start I got "Connection Interrupted" and had to reconnect. On the next round, I managed to spawn. As I wanted to cycle through UI options, I tried to change to another one. Upon changing and hitting "Apply" I crashed. New error box has shown up. "Out of ghoul2 info slots. Couldn’t write the crash log file, but we printed it to stderr. Try running the game using a command line interface." No idea what stderr is. Next time I changed the UI in the main menu and haven't crashed. After this I haven't crashed for the next two hours of playing, including switching to Duel server and going through a map change on it.
There was also an inability to create a local server, enter the shooting range and a tutorial map. "Vehicle extensions (*.veh) are too large" was the message in all three cases (0:19). Unfortunate since I wanted to test a few things on bots, the bot turret and the dummies.
Slippery Movement
Once I got the Beta going on OpenJK the first character I played as was Mara Jade. I immediately noticed that her movement felt as if I was playing with soap or skated on ice (0:39). I also felt a difference between side and forward movement. Side to side speed was discernibly slower than that of forward speed. Less slippery, though.
After my playtime was over and I had written down my preliminary thoughts, I thought about this slippery movement. Soon after the Beta I played M&B Warband and remembered its acceleration-based movement. I think you did something similar for the Beta. Or at least it feels similar. The slow down when changing directions is noticeable. Mara was the first character I tried, so noticing slipperiness on her was easy when it's so obvious. On Jerec it was harder to notice. Might've overlooked it if I hadn't chosen her first.
The only difference in speed should be in the backward movement. Which is already present in the current version. Forward and side movement shouldn't be even considered. No one moves with only W key. Even Blue +W Jedi uses a lot of side movement. This will have a detrimental effect on Gunner duels. Faster characters have bigger windows to dodge shots when moving from side to side. They need more projectile leading to hit. But also because of that they can dodge lead shots easier because the shots need to be aimed further away from their model. Because of this speed advantage they will be less likely to get hit by a lead shot during a direction switch.
In contrast, slow classes like Soldier are easier to hit. Slower side to side movement will make them even easier to hit. Because they are slower it'll be harder for them to get out of knockback loop. Which is when they get hit and slow down but because they are now slowed, they are unable to get out from under the enemy's crosshairs. And they get hit again and again are too slow to dodge and so on. Faster characters have an innate advantage over slower ones.
While playing as Mara, I noticed that the model seemed to be positioned a bit to the right of the crosshair. I have made a comparison between Beta and the current version and it seems I was wrong about that. In the Beta, I made a simple test. If when holding W, I’m moving in a straight line or not. I came to the conclusion that I’m moving in a straight line but it feels off. Like my character is moving slightly to the left when running straight ahead.
Weird Knockback
Knockback also felt weird (2:14). As I only played on Legends, it might've been something with the classes. If I got hit while moving forward or with WA/WD the knockback felt bigger than in the current version. It also felt as if I had to accelerate to the lost max speed instead of starting at it when moving forward again. Knockback felt better when I was only moving from side to side. I guess it didn't feel awful then because the speed loss when getting hit doesn't slow down the character to a stop like with forward movement. That meant that the gap between slowed and max speed is smaller than when you start from scratch. When I get slowed to a crawl again and again, I generally become much slower as I never reach that max speed. Because of this the strength of knockback is more noticeable. I end up moving fewer units in the same amount of time as I was before getting into the Gunner duel.
During the duration of the duel, I cover less and less ground after each time I get hit. This makes diagonal movement useless as you'll get punished if you do it. In the current version diagonal movement can be used to vary the distance, you travel in the Gunner duels. You can make short side movements, medium ones or long dodging movements. Diagonal movement fits between short and medium dodges. It’s an easy way to move slower on the enemy’s screen. You move less distance in the same amount of time it would take you to make a medium-length side movement. Reduction in covered distance might make him overshoot you when he’s leading your movement. This change to knockback eliminates diagonal movement from the game. Possible punishment isn’t worth a try in any situation except when the distances between the Gunners are long. The distance between the doors in Deathstar's TIE hangar.
Jerec’s Destruction and Seeing
While playing as Jerec, I noticed that two things don't work on him. The Destruction force power doesn't work a lot of the time (2:57). FP is used and the animation plays out but no projectile comes out of Jerec's hand. Sometimes it works but it’s a lottery whether you shoot a projectile. Another thing not working is Mirakula Vision and Seeing. I haven't checked the information box to see if he still has Mirakula but the Seeing works like this in the current version. As in you can’t activate/deactivate it because you have it always active. Because of this interaction you can't use Seeing as the game sees you having Mirakula active even if it has no effect.
Custom Classes and Legends Direction
I don't like the addition of custom basic classes. I haven't played enough to know for sure but they seem to be at the same or higher power level than characters the Legends mode is named for. The ability to customize basic classes is the antithesis of Legends mode. I don't know what you want the Legends mode to be but I see it as non-map specific Full Authentic mode. With fun and strong (or OP) classes based on Star Wars. I think the customization change will shift the balance of classes from OP vs. less OP into optimal classes for high K/D and the rest. The balance in the current version is still skewed for some classes but it’s preferable to what I fear you want to change the Legends into.
Although I currently dislike playing on Legends, it isn't because some classes are much stronger than others. It's because of some players that can only hold "scrimmer mindset". Mindset where the only reality possible is K/D of 50/10 and killing everybody's fun. Because of this I tend to not play on Legends. On rare occasions Full Authentic server is populated, I enter it the instant of seeing it in the browser. Such players are uncommon there and if they’re present, I can take the strongest class if they become a nuisance. Full Authentic is most of the time fun. While Legends only sometimes. Add to that that Vjun is a time-waster heaven when those types of players are present. Round lasting less than five minutes is uncommon.
To get back to the Beta. The ordering of characters is much worse than an already bad one in the current version. Heroes and other classes being on the bottom mixed with other classes. The Jedi should be positioned last on the list. Fix ordering of the characters.
There are two things about custom basic classes that need to be fixed. First one is the lack of class labeling on customization box. Or at least I’m blind and it’s somewhere there. When trying to choose ET class, I had no idea if I was customizing the right class, at first. By the options presented, I was almost sure that I have chosen the class I wanted to. Almost, as a class after the ET seemed to be some type of a Trooper. To end the confusion once for all you should add labels for all custom classes.
When hovering on all the options for custom classes, no information box shows up. I have no idea what many of them do. And some that I do have a different name so at a first glance I don't know what that option is. Like with E-11 under the name DH-17. I know they’re the same weapon but with different models. Though in Legends they may not be the same weapons. Without the information box, I have no idea if they’re the same or not. To remove guessing you should add the information box.
FP Drains
Although I hadn't gotten hit much because an alias was trying to get the highest K/D of his career, I was able to experience FP drains once I switched the team (4:16). Don't know how they’re on Open but on Legends they were ridiculous. Couldn't spend time in the open at all. I had to camp in the cover and wait for the Gunners to come and drain all my FP before I can cover any distance to them. I understand that you changed the FP drains to nerf the Jedi. To prevent them from being able to kill Gunners with little effort while the Gunner has to aim as if he’s trying to become a failed professional player.
I agree that a change be in need but you did it from the wrong end. The FP drains of 1.10 weren't a problem, mostly. The real problem is the near-instant FP regeneration at max speed once the Jedi gets hit. And the second problem is the unlimited turn rate once the Jedi starts his swing. This change happened in 1.5 or sometime after. I noticed the effect of it at the beginning of 2020, when I came back. This was worsened by making all swings faster in 1.10. Not sure if you meant to do that but you did. For example, this leads to a Blue player being able to deny a player an ability to make any successful swing, even a counter swing (7:21). Or animations breaking because you can spin as much as you want with the swing speed being closer to your spinning speed than before (6:51).
Now I direct you to a clip illustrating the problem with the regeneration (4:51). That it’s too fast or starts too soon. I can dodge Wookie's shots at the beginning due to my movement. Once the second Gunner joins in, I get hit with many consecutive shots. Compare the difference between when I get hit once and the next shot or two miss and when I get hit many times in a row. You will be able to see that I’m able to more or less regenerate the FP I lost when I’m not getting hit by consecutive shots. Once I am hit by those then lost FP is permanently lost and I can't regenerate above a certain bar. The FP drains are more or less fine when a Jedi gets hit with consecutive shots. But when he doesn't, the shots are making an insignificant impact on his FP. Now, the nature of MB2's projectile system means that it’s hard to make consecutive shots on a Jedi dodging at medium and long distances from the Gunner. That isn’t the issue which needs solving.
In 1.4.9 the FP drains were low and the regeneration started slowly and ramped up to the maximum speed. Or the regeneration also started a few seconds after you weren’t being hit. With 1.5 you changed it to the current system. FP drains are higher and the regeneration starts at max speed immediately after getting hit. Quick start max value regeneration was the compensation for high FP drains. Increase in FP drains solved the issue of not being able to drain the Jedi at all distances except when he was in your face.
You should vastly decrease the speed of constant regeneration. It should take a few seconds for it to ramp up to the maximum speed. Also consider increasing the max speed of regeneration. No reason to punish the Jedi more if the Gunner can’t keep up the pressure on him when he is retreating. This change will allow a Gunner with a good performance to drain the Jedi. And it'll increase the range at which the FP drains are permanent. Just increasing the FP drains will also do that but it'll also make it a lot more punishing for a Jedi to get hit in close range. In that scenario each accurate shot will mean more FP lost than what I propose. With my change the Gunner will still need to hit a Jedi a lot of times and lucky shots won't change the outcome in his favor. While with your changes close range hits are much too punishing. You could decrease FP drains up close but then you'd be going back to the current version and won't solve the issue. The ineffectiveness of non-consecutive hits (5:18).
Coming back to the swing turn rate and swing speed (5:32). Currently a Jedi doesn't have to be at a good angle to the Gunner to make a maximum speed swing. Because of this the Jedi can play brainlessly and wait for a timing gap in the Gunner's shots or make an MBCounter off the projectile. The timing gap is easiest to exploit on Pistol, Bowcaster and similarly low rate of fire weapons. While on Clone Rifle 2 or 3, it’s harder to do. Or you can take a Blue style and make a 100 millisecond swing or some similar absurdly fast swing. There is no need for flanking the Gunner when the maximum swing speed is so fast that you can brute force yourself through the Gunner's face.
Turn rate after the swing is initiated should be limited. To a degree that if the Jedi starts his swing without having flanked the Gunner, he won't be able to squeeze into the projectile timing gap. Or at least it will be harder.
To get to the end of this point. With limitations on the swing turn rate, the Jedi will need to flank the Gunner a lot more to lengthen the timing gap he has for a swing. Gunner needs to re-aim when he is flanked as the Jedi isn't in his crosshairs. He is somewhere to the side of him. Once the turn rate is limited, you’ll still need to reduce swing speed to the one before 1.10.
UI (Tournament)
Now, let's talk about the new UI. The transition between scoreboard disappears and UI shows up happens too early. This is the same behavior as in the current version. With used UI (Tournament), the transition looks ugly. With it the scoreboard should disappear and only then the UI should show up. I haven't been able to cycle between UI options, so I don't know if there is one that looks close to the current one. One in which the scoreboard doesn't clash with the UI by being in front of its elements when the transition happens. You should move the transition to a point after the scoreboard disappears. If there are UI options that are out of the scoreboard's way, like the current one, then you can keep the current scoreboard transition for them.
I’m not a fan of the new UI. I don't know if there are better ones than the Tournament option, so I’m only criticizing that UI. Don't know if there is a way to remove the player icons on the left but I'd like to do it. The problem with them is that they’re flush with the side of the screen. Although they don't restrict the viewing angle, they are uncomfortable to look at when they're snapped to the edge of the screen. The vertical BP bar in the current version is more in line with how the icons should be positioned (1:43). There is a little bit of space between it and the screen's edge. This makes it easier to look at the bar.
I assume the minimap was lowered to accommodate the Beta label and it'll be in normal position once the UI changes come through. Wouldn't like for it to be lowered when that time comes.
The circles around the A pose and held weapons are too small. They’re smaller than in the current version. A pose looks fine in relation to the circle, but the gun looks as if it wants to escape from the circle. I'd like for the circles to be bigger but if you don't do that you should decrease the size of gun icons or of the other items.
Icon's size has an impact on visibility when trying to see what saber style you’re currently switched to. The glow enveloping the saber is tiny. Compare it to the current version. The saber is all inside the glow. I know you can’t increase the size of the glow in the circles because of ACM visibility. Instead you should make the saber smaller so that the glow envelops it a lot more. Or make the ACM counter a number that shows up above the saber/circle/bars. I remember having the number with UI changed back in 2018. Should be possible with today’s technology.
It seems I will need to change the UI color and opacity to be the same as the current version as this one looks ugly. What I did notice is that the colors for the circles and empty information bars are too solid. In the current version, the areas with useful information are less solid. The borders around them are the solid areas. The tracks used by the information bars have an inner less opaque curve that becomes opaque when at its border's limit. This looks nicer than the new UI's blocks.
It’s nice to finally have a number for BP. With the old small bars, it seemed like three or four bars were a lot but when you converted them to numbers they actually weren't.
I could also talk about more issues, but those would be splitting hairs. Numbers being in the wrong position. Bars positioned in reverse order. Horizontal bars being too long. Inconsistent division of horizontal bars. The lower UI being in a different position than the current one.
Crosshair and Its Effects
I noticed that PB and other effects aren’t centered on crosshair or the other way around. The offset is in Beta and the current version. Crosshairs size 48 and 45, respectively. Don't know if the default crosshair is centered in the file but my custom crosshair used in the current version is centered. Don't know if this is effected by a crosshair collision. In the current version, I have it set to "World" and in Beta I forgot about that and set it to "Everything". Also, the maximum crosshair size should be higher. Some small crosshair styles aren’t big enough even when they should be when set to 48.
(*.veh)
As I cannot make a local server, I can't test further one thing. I did check that that it works but haven’t noted how it’s affected by the movement changes. I talk about how you can put yourself into standing state by pressing both A and D at the same time or by holding one key and tapping the other one (1:52). During the deceleration you are put into the standing state but you are still moving when that happens. With good timing you can make standing accuracy shots while moving. This is most useful on T-21 primary and Clone Rifles. I'll remember to test this the next time the occasion presents.
These are my thoughts on one hour of barely doing anything on Legends. I'll post my thoughts on Saber changes after the next Beta. Though they won't change as the problems noticed in one hour of play won't fix themselves in ten hours. The overcomplicated mess of memorizing ten conditions happening non-stop, per the changelog.
Before playing the Beta, I've only skimmed through the changelog. Mostly for the saber. For Open I remembered that something to do with the movement was changed. These are my thoughts from the blind play of one hour of Legends.
Crashes
Right from the start I had problems with the Beta. I kept crashing while on JAMP. The crashing was happening while loading the map on the Legends server. The log wasn't created during the first crash, I checked to see what has happened. Later the log files were created. "Exception Code: 0xC0000005 (Access Violation)" being in them all. That tells me nothing. Only once I have managed to load the map. After a few minutes of playing, I crashed. This time I have crashed with yellow text console dump showing up. I haven't made a screenshot of that but the message was similar or the same as one I got when I crashed later on OpenJK. It was "Out of ghoul2 info slot" or "Your ghoul instance has no slots". This message was repeatedly created in the console in the first seconds since entering the server. On OpenJK those lines stopped showing up after a bit and hasn't shown up to the end of my playtime on Legends server. Haven't noticed those lines on a Duel server.
Since I was crashing on JAMP, I switched to OpenJK. On it I was able to enter the server without a problem. I chose a class and waited for a new round to start. The moment the round was supposed to start I got "Connection Interrupted" and had to reconnect. On the next round, I managed to spawn. As I wanted to cycle through UI options, I tried to change to another one. Upon changing and hitting "Apply" I crashed. New error box has shown up. "Out of ghoul2 info slots. Couldn’t write the crash log file, but we printed it to stderr. Try running the game using a command line interface." No idea what stderr is. Next time I changed the UI in the main menu and haven't crashed. After this I haven't crashed for the next two hours of playing, including switching to Duel server and going through a map change on it.
There was also an inability to create a local server, enter the shooting range and a tutorial map. "Vehicle extensions (*.veh) are too large" was the message in all three cases (0:19). Unfortunate since I wanted to test a few things on bots, the bot turret and the dummies.
Slippery Movement
Once I got the Beta going on OpenJK the first character I played as was Mara Jade. I immediately noticed that her movement felt as if I was playing with soap or skated on ice (0:39). I also felt a difference between side and forward movement. Side to side speed was discernibly slower than that of forward speed. Less slippery, though.
After my playtime was over and I had written down my preliminary thoughts, I thought about this slippery movement. Soon after the Beta I played M&B Warband and remembered its acceleration-based movement. I think you did something similar for the Beta. Or at least it feels similar. The slow down when changing directions is noticeable. Mara was the first character I tried, so noticing slipperiness on her was easy when it's so obvious. On Jerec it was harder to notice. Might've overlooked it if I hadn't chosen her first.
The only difference in speed should be in the backward movement. Which is already present in the current version. Forward and side movement shouldn't be even considered. No one moves with only W key. Even Blue +W Jedi uses a lot of side movement. This will have a detrimental effect on Gunner duels. Faster characters have bigger windows to dodge shots when moving from side to side. They need more projectile leading to hit. But also because of that they can dodge lead shots easier because the shots need to be aimed further away from their model. Because of this speed advantage they will be less likely to get hit by a lead shot during a direction switch.
In contrast, slow classes like Soldier are easier to hit. Slower side to side movement will make them even easier to hit. Because they are slower it'll be harder for them to get out of knockback loop. Which is when they get hit and slow down but because they are now slowed, they are unable to get out from under the enemy's crosshairs. And they get hit again and again are too slow to dodge and so on. Faster characters have an innate advantage over slower ones.
While playing as Mara, I noticed that the model seemed to be positioned a bit to the right of the crosshair. I have made a comparison between Beta and the current version and it seems I was wrong about that. In the Beta, I made a simple test. If when holding W, I’m moving in a straight line or not. I came to the conclusion that I’m moving in a straight line but it feels off. Like my character is moving slightly to the left when running straight ahead.
Weird Knockback
Knockback also felt weird (2:14). As I only played on Legends, it might've been something with the classes. If I got hit while moving forward or with WA/WD the knockback felt bigger than in the current version. It also felt as if I had to accelerate to the lost max speed instead of starting at it when moving forward again. Knockback felt better when I was only moving from side to side. I guess it didn't feel awful then because the speed loss when getting hit doesn't slow down the character to a stop like with forward movement. That meant that the gap between slowed and max speed is smaller than when you start from scratch. When I get slowed to a crawl again and again, I generally become much slower as I never reach that max speed. Because of this the strength of knockback is more noticeable. I end up moving fewer units in the same amount of time as I was before getting into the Gunner duel.
During the duration of the duel, I cover less and less ground after each time I get hit. This makes diagonal movement useless as you'll get punished if you do it. In the current version diagonal movement can be used to vary the distance, you travel in the Gunner duels. You can make short side movements, medium ones or long dodging movements. Diagonal movement fits between short and medium dodges. It’s an easy way to move slower on the enemy’s screen. You move less distance in the same amount of time it would take you to make a medium-length side movement. Reduction in covered distance might make him overshoot you when he’s leading your movement. This change to knockback eliminates diagonal movement from the game. Possible punishment isn’t worth a try in any situation except when the distances between the Gunners are long. The distance between the doors in Deathstar's TIE hangar.
Jerec’s Destruction and Seeing
While playing as Jerec, I noticed that two things don't work on him. The Destruction force power doesn't work a lot of the time (2:57). FP is used and the animation plays out but no projectile comes out of Jerec's hand. Sometimes it works but it’s a lottery whether you shoot a projectile. Another thing not working is Mirakula Vision and Seeing. I haven't checked the information box to see if he still has Mirakula but the Seeing works like this in the current version. As in you can’t activate/deactivate it because you have it always active. Because of this interaction you can't use Seeing as the game sees you having Mirakula active even if it has no effect.
Custom Classes and Legends Direction
I don't like the addition of custom basic classes. I haven't played enough to know for sure but they seem to be at the same or higher power level than characters the Legends mode is named for. The ability to customize basic classes is the antithesis of Legends mode. I don't know what you want the Legends mode to be but I see it as non-map specific Full Authentic mode. With fun and strong (or OP) classes based on Star Wars. I think the customization change will shift the balance of classes from OP vs. less OP into optimal classes for high K/D and the rest. The balance in the current version is still skewed for some classes but it’s preferable to what I fear you want to change the Legends into.
Although I currently dislike playing on Legends, it isn't because some classes are much stronger than others. It's because of some players that can only hold "scrimmer mindset". Mindset where the only reality possible is K/D of 50/10 and killing everybody's fun. Because of this I tend to not play on Legends. On rare occasions Full Authentic server is populated, I enter it the instant of seeing it in the browser. Such players are uncommon there and if they’re present, I can take the strongest class if they become a nuisance. Full Authentic is most of the time fun. While Legends only sometimes. Add to that that Vjun is a time-waster heaven when those types of players are present. Round lasting less than five minutes is uncommon.
To get back to the Beta. The ordering of characters is much worse than an already bad one in the current version. Heroes and other classes being on the bottom mixed with other classes. The Jedi should be positioned last on the list. Fix ordering of the characters.
There are two things about custom basic classes that need to be fixed. First one is the lack of class labeling on customization box. Or at least I’m blind and it’s somewhere there. When trying to choose ET class, I had no idea if I was customizing the right class, at first. By the options presented, I was almost sure that I have chosen the class I wanted to. Almost, as a class after the ET seemed to be some type of a Trooper. To end the confusion once for all you should add labels for all custom classes.
When hovering on all the options for custom classes, no information box shows up. I have no idea what many of them do. And some that I do have a different name so at a first glance I don't know what that option is. Like with E-11 under the name DH-17. I know they’re the same weapon but with different models. Though in Legends they may not be the same weapons. Without the information box, I have no idea if they’re the same or not. To remove guessing you should add the information box.
FP Drains
Although I hadn't gotten hit much because an alias was trying to get the highest K/D of his career, I was able to experience FP drains once I switched the team (4:16). Don't know how they’re on Open but on Legends they were ridiculous. Couldn't spend time in the open at all. I had to camp in the cover and wait for the Gunners to come and drain all my FP before I can cover any distance to them. I understand that you changed the FP drains to nerf the Jedi. To prevent them from being able to kill Gunners with little effort while the Gunner has to aim as if he’s trying to become a failed professional player.
I agree that a change be in need but you did it from the wrong end. The FP drains of 1.10 weren't a problem, mostly. The real problem is the near-instant FP regeneration at max speed once the Jedi gets hit. And the second problem is the unlimited turn rate once the Jedi starts his swing. This change happened in 1.5 or sometime after. I noticed the effect of it at the beginning of 2020, when I came back. This was worsened by making all swings faster in 1.10. Not sure if you meant to do that but you did. For example, this leads to a Blue player being able to deny a player an ability to make any successful swing, even a counter swing (7:21). Or animations breaking because you can spin as much as you want with the swing speed being closer to your spinning speed than before (6:51).
Now I direct you to a clip illustrating the problem with the regeneration (4:51). That it’s too fast or starts too soon. I can dodge Wookie's shots at the beginning due to my movement. Once the second Gunner joins in, I get hit with many consecutive shots. Compare the difference between when I get hit once and the next shot or two miss and when I get hit many times in a row. You will be able to see that I’m able to more or less regenerate the FP I lost when I’m not getting hit by consecutive shots. Once I am hit by those then lost FP is permanently lost and I can't regenerate above a certain bar. The FP drains are more or less fine when a Jedi gets hit with consecutive shots. But when he doesn't, the shots are making an insignificant impact on his FP. Now, the nature of MB2's projectile system means that it’s hard to make consecutive shots on a Jedi dodging at medium and long distances from the Gunner. That isn’t the issue which needs solving.
In 1.4.9 the FP drains were low and the regeneration started slowly and ramped up to the maximum speed. Or the regeneration also started a few seconds after you weren’t being hit. With 1.5 you changed it to the current system. FP drains are higher and the regeneration starts at max speed immediately after getting hit. Quick start max value regeneration was the compensation for high FP drains. Increase in FP drains solved the issue of not being able to drain the Jedi at all distances except when he was in your face.
You should vastly decrease the speed of constant regeneration. It should take a few seconds for it to ramp up to the maximum speed. Also consider increasing the max speed of regeneration. No reason to punish the Jedi more if the Gunner can’t keep up the pressure on him when he is retreating. This change will allow a Gunner with a good performance to drain the Jedi. And it'll increase the range at which the FP drains are permanent. Just increasing the FP drains will also do that but it'll also make it a lot more punishing for a Jedi to get hit in close range. In that scenario each accurate shot will mean more FP lost than what I propose. With my change the Gunner will still need to hit a Jedi a lot of times and lucky shots won't change the outcome in his favor. While with your changes close range hits are much too punishing. You could decrease FP drains up close but then you'd be going back to the current version and won't solve the issue. The ineffectiveness of non-consecutive hits (5:18).
Coming back to the swing turn rate and swing speed (5:32). Currently a Jedi doesn't have to be at a good angle to the Gunner to make a maximum speed swing. Because of this the Jedi can play brainlessly and wait for a timing gap in the Gunner's shots or make an MBCounter off the projectile. The timing gap is easiest to exploit on Pistol, Bowcaster and similarly low rate of fire weapons. While on Clone Rifle 2 or 3, it’s harder to do. Or you can take a Blue style and make a 100 millisecond swing or some similar absurdly fast swing. There is no need for flanking the Gunner when the maximum swing speed is so fast that you can brute force yourself through the Gunner's face.
Turn rate after the swing is initiated should be limited. To a degree that if the Jedi starts his swing without having flanked the Gunner, he won't be able to squeeze into the projectile timing gap. Or at least it will be harder.
To get to the end of this point. With limitations on the swing turn rate, the Jedi will need to flank the Gunner a lot more to lengthen the timing gap he has for a swing. Gunner needs to re-aim when he is flanked as the Jedi isn't in his crosshairs. He is somewhere to the side of him. Once the turn rate is limited, you’ll still need to reduce swing speed to the one before 1.10.
UI (Tournament)
Now, let's talk about the new UI. The transition between scoreboard disappears and UI shows up happens too early. This is the same behavior as in the current version. With used UI (Tournament), the transition looks ugly. With it the scoreboard should disappear and only then the UI should show up. I haven't been able to cycle between UI options, so I don't know if there is one that looks close to the current one. One in which the scoreboard doesn't clash with the UI by being in front of its elements when the transition happens. You should move the transition to a point after the scoreboard disappears. If there are UI options that are out of the scoreboard's way, like the current one, then you can keep the current scoreboard transition for them.
I’m not a fan of the new UI. I don't know if there are better ones than the Tournament option, so I’m only criticizing that UI. Don't know if there is a way to remove the player icons on the left but I'd like to do it. The problem with them is that they’re flush with the side of the screen. Although they don't restrict the viewing angle, they are uncomfortable to look at when they're snapped to the edge of the screen. The vertical BP bar in the current version is more in line with how the icons should be positioned (1:43). There is a little bit of space between it and the screen's edge. This makes it easier to look at the bar.
I assume the minimap was lowered to accommodate the Beta label and it'll be in normal position once the UI changes come through. Wouldn't like for it to be lowered when that time comes.
The circles around the A pose and held weapons are too small. They’re smaller than in the current version. A pose looks fine in relation to the circle, but the gun looks as if it wants to escape from the circle. I'd like for the circles to be bigger but if you don't do that you should decrease the size of gun icons or of the other items.
Icon's size has an impact on visibility when trying to see what saber style you’re currently switched to. The glow enveloping the saber is tiny. Compare it to the current version. The saber is all inside the glow. I know you can’t increase the size of the glow in the circles because of ACM visibility. Instead you should make the saber smaller so that the glow envelops it a lot more. Or make the ACM counter a number that shows up above the saber/circle/bars. I remember having the number with UI changed back in 2018. Should be possible with today’s technology.
It seems I will need to change the UI color and opacity to be the same as the current version as this one looks ugly. What I did notice is that the colors for the circles and empty information bars are too solid. In the current version, the areas with useful information are less solid. The borders around them are the solid areas. The tracks used by the information bars have an inner less opaque curve that becomes opaque when at its border's limit. This looks nicer than the new UI's blocks.
It’s nice to finally have a number for BP. With the old small bars, it seemed like three or four bars were a lot but when you converted them to numbers they actually weren't.
I could also talk about more issues, but those would be splitting hairs. Numbers being in the wrong position. Bars positioned in reverse order. Horizontal bars being too long. Inconsistent division of horizontal bars. The lower UI being in a different position than the current one.
Crosshair and Its Effects
I noticed that PB and other effects aren’t centered on crosshair or the other way around. The offset is in Beta and the current version. Crosshairs size 48 and 45, respectively. Don't know if the default crosshair is centered in the file but my custom crosshair used in the current version is centered. Don't know if this is effected by a crosshair collision. In the current version, I have it set to "World" and in Beta I forgot about that and set it to "Everything". Also, the maximum crosshair size should be higher. Some small crosshair styles aren’t big enough even when they should be when set to 48.
(*.veh)
As I cannot make a local server, I can't test further one thing. I did check that that it works but haven’t noted how it’s affected by the movement changes. I talk about how you can put yourself into standing state by pressing both A and D at the same time or by holding one key and tapping the other one (1:52). During the deceleration you are put into the standing state but you are still moving when that happens. With good timing you can make standing accuracy shots while moving. This is most useful on T-21 primary and Clone Rifles. I'll remember to test this the next time the occasion presents.
These are my thoughts on one hour of barely doing anything on Legends. I'll post my thoughts on Saber changes after the next Beta. Though they won't change as the problems noticed in one hour of play won't fix themselves in ten hours. The overcomplicated mess of memorizing ten conditions happening non-stop, per the changelog.
