Welcome to Star Wars Galaxies Restoration server.
Restoration is an NGE server that has a number of bespoke fixes to bring the profession and combat mechanics in line with the original Combat Upgrade (CU) update which was released on the Live server on 27th April 2005. These changes allow players to eventually experience the full range of content the NGE (New Game Enhancements) had to offer, such as Kashyyyk, Mustafar and Heroic instances for the first time using the Combat Upgrade combat and profession systems.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Combat Upgrade, but have played other iterations of Star Wars Galaxies, there are a number of noticeable changes from both Pre-CU and NGE gameplay:
Main Combat Upgrade Changes
Accuracy
Accuracy does three things:
- Determines probability of hitting the target.
- Determines where in the range of your min - max damage you will hit
- If your accuracy is greater than the defensive skills of your target, you do additional damage.
Armor
Armor now has three types: Battle, Recon, and Assault. Recon has a slight bonus to energy protection and reduced kinetic protection. Assault has slight bonus to kinetic protection and reducted energy protection. Each appearance is assigned to one of the types, so that if you see someone in Composite, you know they have Assault armor.
In order to wear armor you must be certified for that armor type. Certifications are given at novice elite combat skills. For example, Novice Doctor is certified for Battle armor.
All armor has inherent hindrances: movement speed, rate of fire, and accuracy. These cannot be experimented during crafting.
Each armor type has three levels: Basic, Standard, and Advanced. With each level increase, the maximum protection increases, but so do the hindrances.
Hindrances can be reduced and cancelled out by Mitigation, which are granted in elite combat skill boxes. At master elite skill boxes, all hindrances for Advanced armor should be completely mitigated.
Factional armor is now available for each armor type and is now craftable. Armorsmiths must purchase limited-use schematics from a faction recruiter using faction points. Once crafted, the player must use faction points to tie the armor piece to that character. Faction armor can be worn while a Combatant or Special Forces, but not while On Leave.
Experience (XP)
Each group member gets their full potential experience from a NPC as long as they deal damage before the NPC dies. Experience is given when the NPC dies.
Healers get Medical experience for healing group members fighting a NPC.
Scouts and Rangers get Trapping experience the same way as weapons experience, after the creature has been killed.
Potential experience is determined by the character's combat level and the NPC's combat level. Fighting a NPC that cons white (even match) will give appropriate experience gain for that player's combat level, so that they can level up at an appropriate pace.
When in a group, each player gets experience based on a creature of their current combat level and the difference between the group level and the creatures. So if the creature is two levels higher than the group, the player would get the same experience as if he/she had defeated a NPC two levels higher than his/her own combat level when solo.
The total potential experience for a player is divided up based on damage dealt with each weapon type and damage healed. Thus if a player could get 1000xp and healed himself for 100 points and dealt 900 points of damage to kill a creature, he would get 900 weapons exp, 100 medical exp, and 90 combat exp.
On Restoration, XP rates are different to that of Live, as follows:
Crafting XP x 5
Combat XP x 5
Combat Level
Each player has a combat level from 1 to 80. You increase in combat level by gaining skills in combat professions. These include Medic professions and Scout professions and exclude all Entertainer and Artisan professions.
Combat level increase is based on the experience required to get the skill. Thus if you go from 1100 Marksman to 1110 Marksman, your level may not go up. But if you went from 3000 Marksman to 4000 Marksman, you will likely go up a level.
The difference between your combat level and the NPC's combat level determines experience gained. Each CL has a base experience for killing same-level NPC's. For each level higher, there's a 10% increase. For each level lower there is a 10% decrease. If a NPC is conned grey, it will always give only 1 exp for each type earned.
If there is a difference in combat level between you and the NPC, artificial damage modifiers go into effect. This makes it easier to fight NPCs of lower level and harder to fight creatures of higher level.
A new CON color system is in place. grey, Green, Blue, White, Yellow, Red, Purple. White is at your level, grey gives 1 xp, and purple is truly "Instant Death."
All group members will have the same combat level as the highest group member in range.
Combat Queue and Auto-Aim
Auto Aim is not applicable here. Due to the mechanics of the Combat Upgrade, Auto Aim is not present and only one ability can be queue at a time.
The traditional combat queue window from Pre-CU is gone. Now timers are visualized on the toolbar over the specials and abilities that can be used in combat.
Each ability has an execute timer and a cooldown timer. Some abilities also have a wind-up timer, which will occur before the ability executes.
Similar abilities are grouped and share cooldown timers. Ungrouped abilities can be executed one after the other. Spamming the exact same ability will take longer than alternating abilities.
The next ability to be executed will be highlighted in yellow. You can cancel it by executing another ability before it begins.
Cooldown timers for attack abilities are based on your equipped weapon's speed. An overcharge shot will take longer to cool down when fired from a 3 second rifle than when fired from a 1.5 pistol, for example.
States
There are three
debuffs commonoly referred to as states, here are their names and effects:
Dizzy - Lowers your accuracy and your mind regen.
Blind - Lowers your accuracy a lot.
Stun - Lowers your accuracy a little and your defense.
Choosing a profession
Each new Character starts with the Novice boxes for the core starter professions (Brawler, Entertainer, Marksman, Medic, Scout) so these Novice boxes come already trained. As you level, you can use the Novice Entertainer box to give yourself a 12% XP buff (see Levelling below) in order to gain additional XP when levelling.
It is always recommended to identify what profession/s you want to be prior to starting your journey in the Galaxy. This is to ensure that you do not waste credits and XP on profession skills that you will not need. You can use the Profession
Skill Calculator to figure out what professions you want to be, and allocate your skill points efficiently.
You can visit the Professions section in the Star Wars Galaxies Prima Guide that is available on the R3 Launcher, which has further information on each profession and suggested pairing with other professions.
Once you know what professions you want to be, you can start gaining your XP in order to level up by training in the skill boxes for your chosen profession/s.
Levelling
On Restoration, combat players can gain experience points (XP) in one of two ways:
- Killing NPCs that con green, blue, white, yellow, red or purple to them
- Completing quests
When completing a quest, you will be rewarded weapon XP based on the weapon you have equipped at the time you hand the quest in to the quest giver. If you have no weapon equipped, you shall be rewarded Unarmed XP.
As you start with Novice Entertainer, you can give yourself a XP buff boost by using the Inspire ability on yourself and putting all your available points into the buff 'Flush With Success'. This will give you a 12% XP increase. If you want the full XP increase (15%), you would need to see a Master Entertainer who has the full allocation of buff points to allocate to your character.
It is strongly recommended for new players to start off with the
Legacy questline starting with the mission
A Speeder For Me
Once you have reached Combat Level 20, you can begin to join a Spin Group, which is where all group members take terminal missions in the same direction and use area attacks to kill all NPCs and take down the lair and then move into the next lair. It’s a quick way to get mass XP to level rapidly. Spin groups can be done along side Legacy quests for content variety when leveling. Spin Groups often operate out of Dantooine Mining Outpost, but you can see if new ones are being formed by checking the #LFG channel in R3 discord.
If you are leveling via Quests and Theme Parks, the natural progression of questlines is as follows:
Legacy Quest >
Jabbas Theme Park >
Legacy Quest >
Nyms Theme Park >
Kashyyyk Quests >
Rebel or
Imperial Theme Parks
Use the Skill menu (U) to find out how much XP you need for the next box you wish to train in, you can find this by clicking each skill box. You cannot skip skill boxes, and must learn the prerequisite boxes before you can train in later one.
You can then find out how much XP you have by checking the 'My Experience' box in the bottom left of the Skill menu.
Once you have enough XP for your box, you now need to be trained.
Training
In order to be trained in a specific skill box, you will need to find a profession trainer, or a player who has already learnt that skill so you can be trained in that skill box.
- Profession trainers are found in Combat Halls in many non player cities, such as Mos Eisley, Theed and Coronet. Trainers are also found in a number of player cities also. You can find the trainers in world by hitting the planet map key (V) and use the filter on the right hand side, and filter by 'Trainer'.
- A list of Trainers can be found in the
Trainers Wiki entry (thanks to Dzsuhi for adding this!)
- You can also be trained by players who currently have that skill box.
- To learn a skill box from a profession trainer costs credits and each time you train (whether from a trainer or a player), the amount of XP used for that box is consumed.
- Gaining additional Skill boxes increases your Combat Level.
Training Tip
When leveling a profession, it is always best practice to gain Skill boxes in a vertical line. So instead of training the first box in each branch of a Skill tree (1111), train in one branch at a time (4xxx or x4xx for example). You Combat Level is determined by the total amount of XP you have invested in Skill boxes. As Skill boxes require more XP the higher they are in the Skill tree, the more XP is required. By leveling this way you will gain Combat Levels quicker, making it easier to take on progressive quest, such as the Legacy quests, or Jabbas Theme Park.
Get Flying!
To save yourself a lot of money as a new player, visit the Privateer Pilot Trainer in the back room of Mos Eisley cantina. If you enroll as a Privateer (Neutral) pilot he gives you a ship, so you can travel from planet to planet free of charge.
Your Privateer pilot status can be changed at any time by seeing Gil Burtin in Bestine Hotel, if you wish to go Rebel or Imperial pilot at a later stage.
Getting Inspiration Buffs
Entertainers can increase your XP gain, combat attributes, crafting success and many more. In order to receive an Inspiration buff watch or listen to an entertainer while they are performing and wait until you see a message "Max Duration", before you accept your buff. (tip: for double speed of the buff building watch and listen at the same time, if there are dancers and musicians performing in the cantina). Only a master musician/dancer can offer 5.30 hr long buff and max 20 points to spend on it. While you're watching/listening, let the entertainer know what kind of buff you need, so they can build it for you. Don't forget to thank the entertainer and tip them for their service (if you can afford it), as tips are their main source of income. They would understand if you, as a new player, can't spare credits for tips, and wouldn't mind to buff you for free.
Helpful Links
Helpful tips for new players - thanks to SoloWest for this addition!
R3 Knowledge Base - A number of helpful guides regarding Account and in game issues.
Macros and Unattended gameplay - important information about macros functionality on Restoration server