[Johnny Rico]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Quinn: "Regarding the original question, I seriously question the value of Jedis, given that the ir permadeath will make them too risky a proposition for PAs to gamble too much on."

J.R.: I would agree (regarding perma-death), especially in a scenario where a mere FS/Padawan character was acting independently without the aid of an association to provide protection. But as Legionnaires, you all will have a built in support group to be able to protect you from a would-be attacker when you are in the FS or Padawan stage of your evolution and the most vulnerable to attack, and subsequent perma-death. Because of the Legion’s built in support group the likelihood of a Legionnaire developing a FS character into a full fledged Jedi Knight/Jedi Master will increase substantially.

I would respectfully disagree with your statement about the value of a Jedi. Remember, in SWI two Jedi Knights took out an entire ship by themselves. The command knew they were already dead as soon as the Jedi presence was identified. We are talking about one bad ass mofo. If your association has a Jedi Knight, your advantage in battle will be immeasurable.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Quinn "The dev team says that unlocking a FS slot will probably take about a year for the average gamer. If I know the average LEGION gamer that time will probably be halved for most parts - that is if you go straight for unlocking the FS slot. This means that we will all have chars that we have developed for all that time, which should make them better than any Padawan-wannabe."

J.R.: I would also agree. A fully developed non FS character will most likely be considerably stronger than a Padawan-wannabe, and as a result will be vulnerable to termination. However, a non FS character must first be able to identify a FS or Padawan before you can kill him/her (unless you just go around killing everyone of course, and I'm sure this will be many people's strategy). From what I've read there will be no way to identify whether a character is force sensitive or a Padawan unless that character discloses the information to you, or if you see them walking around with a LS chopping off arms. If you are force sensitive I would assume that you will be able to identify other individuals with force sensitivity (ala: “the force is strong in this one”). I would also assume that it will be highly unlikely that anyone in the Legion will be newbie enough to go around telling other non-Legion members that he/she has developed force sensitivity.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Quinn: "Then comes the Jedi training, which is pretty much undisclosed. It is only certain that making it to Jedi Master will be tough going, and will involve potentially lethal challenges that only the FS character can face (Mara Jade in single combat for example)."

J.R.: It may be possible to escort a FS/Padawan during his/her Jedi training to protect against the threat of outside assassination. As you point out, VERY little if anything has been disclosed regarding what that training will entail, and how lethal that training may be. Once I know what training will be required to advance your FS character into the ranks of the Jedi Knights, I will have a better idea of whether the exercise will be feasible. Until then I'm just excited about the possibility of becoming force sensitive. As someone said in an earlier post, if it happens I'll deal with it.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Quinn: "Then if a character finally makes it to JM level, he will be hunted by pretty much everyone. I know that I would love nothing more than having my Jedi Killer that I developed for a year or more at this point to collect a few JM scalps to hang in my belt. If for nothing else, then for the satisfaction of pissing off some Obi-Wan fanboy that just wasted his past year gettin that far :)"

J.R.: From what I've read, you are going to need a small army of non FS character to take out a single Jedi Knight. I highly doubt that any one non-FS character will be able to just blast a Jedi into perma-death, even if you take one by surprise (who knows if it is even going to be possible to surprise a Jedi. Nor do we know what defenses a Jedi Knight will have via the force to be able to anticipate possible attacks, and control the actions of other players.)

If you ever see a Jedi Master, and who knows if anyone ever will, I am quite certain, that it will take a few Jedi Knights to take him/her out, and you will need a substantial army of non FS characters to even put a dent in him/her. After all, it took DV to kill Obi-wan, not some no-name storm trooper with a blaster. Because the developers are really trying to keep to the spirit of the films, I think that because it will be so difficult to develop into a Jedi, once you are there it isn't going to be so easy to meet perma-death.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Quinn: "Of course i don't know just hoe effective a JM character will be, but all it takes is one ISP failure and it's adios muchachos - wasting not only that person's playing time, but also the time of the people who have kept them safe until then."

J.R.: Hopefully, the developers have anticipated this possibility and will address it in their beta tests.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Quinn: "Also training a jedi character pretty much ties up that person from alliance involvement while it's being developed, making the battle harder for the rest of us."

We don't know this for sure at this point. So your statement may not be 100% accurate, but you may very well be right.

Cheers-


JR