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| "The Lightsaber is your life, never lose it." |
| Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master |
Blocking has always been one of the most basic rules and crucial aspects of swordplay. With the lightsaber being able to kill your enemy in 1 mere blow, blocking has always been a crucial part in the movies. Fights usually consisted 2 to 3 saberists, standing near each other, focusing on their saber, rather than on their movement. Jedi Academy represented sabering with a lot of overly fancy acrobatics, focusing on running passed your opponent and hoping to hit while running away to avoid the next swing. Movie Battles brings back the movie-aspect to saber battles.
Every swing of any saber stance or sabertype can kill instantly. It is your job to block the swing and find an opening in your opponent's defense. Blocking can be done via 4 ways:
| - | Auto-Blocking: |
| Letting the game do the blocking for you. Auto-blocking occurs when you have enough BP's to block the enemy's swing, not being stationary and not attacking at all. The advantage of this is to be able to get out of hectic situations when going into the Defensive pose is too limiting, e.g. facing a gunner and a saberist. |
| - | Defensive Blocking: |
| Defensive blocking consists of manually choosing to enter the Defensive pose, thus being able to efficiently block better. In the Defensive pose, your movement has been slowed down to that of walking to accurately represent sabering in the movies. You are still vulnerable to hits, but those will need to be placed at specific points to break through your guard. Keep your aim on your opponent to block his swing or place your saber in the area where it will make contact. Defensive blocking uses up BPs, the amount depending upon your saber style, except if done perfectly (that is, you manage to place your saber directly in the path of an opponent's saber) - in which case, it uses no BPs at all. |
| - | Manual Blocking: |
| The ability to manually block saber swings. To enter the Manual-Block pose (MBlock), hold both the "Attack" and "Block"-buttons. Due to humans not having the abilities of the Force, being able to manually block during the whole fight is not possible. Anticipation and tactics are and thus we have made this available. Hit a MBlock right at the moment of impact and make sure the saber makes contact with the opponent's saber and a MBlock will occur. MBlocks, if done right, take no BP tole and grant you the ability to cause a knock off/away of the opponent's saber. The drawback is that it is hard to do and if not done right, costs a lot of BP. |
| - | Swing-Blocking: |
| Blocking while attacking, otherwise known as swing-blocking. With swing-blocking, you can attack, and hold the block button during your attack. When this is done, you slow to walking speed, and take less damage from attacks, as well as becoming immune to the disarming effects of manual blocks. |
| - | Attack-Blocking: |
| If your saber strikes another's during an attack, it will bounce off. This also can be used to defend while attacking. |
In the above, you have probably seen the mention of BP's, BP-costs etc. BP stands for Blocking Points and is used as an indicator of how good your guard is. In a game where you are facing gunners as well as saberists and where we suggest movie-like play (not all that running and jumping around like in the base game), we use BP's to limit you in those ways. You are still able to play as in the base game, but it is far more favourable to play in our suggested manner, also prolongs your lifespan during rounds.
You lose BP's by jumping, attacking and blocking. You regenerate BP's by being in the Defensive pose. The amount you lose by attacking/blocking is determined by your saber stance/type. Once you lose all of your BP's or are below the required amount to block the opponent's swing, you will either lose your saber, be knocked back/down or the swing will break through your guard. Thus it is advised to keep your BP's high at all times. Remember that you only lose BP's by blocking saber swings, not by blocking blaster fire.
Attacking drains BP's from both your as your opponent's amount. As saber combat consists of lowering the BP-amount of your opponent and then killing him, the various saber stances/types have thus been catered around this concept. Every swing of any of those can kill, but how fast it drains the opponent's amount of BP's and how much you can guard, differentiates them from each other.
| - | Single Saber - Blue Stance: |
| Focuses on Defense more than on Offense, capable of withstanding powerful swings, but unable of dealing such itself. Being a standard for every Padawan to start in, you will still be able to take on more 'experienced' saberists, depending on your skill. |
| - | Single Saber - Yellow Stance: |
| The ultimate balance between offensive play and defensive play, focusing on neither solely, but equally on both. The Yellow Stance is the most common stance used by many players who do not prefer to focus anymore on saber combat. The advantage of such thinking is that you can focus more on the Force. Requires at least the second level of Offensive saber training. |
| - | Single Saber - Red Stance: |
| The most powerful stance of all the traditional stances, the Red Stance requires at least a completion of your offensive saber training. Lacking in defense, it makes that up in offense. |
| - | Saber Staff - White Stance: |
| To attain this Sabertype you will need to fully complete your sabertraining by gaining level 3 Offense and Defense. An art form of its own, the Staff style of lightsaber combat is geared towards gaining an advantage over other saberists, starting out fairly average and growing in strength progressively as a duel stretches out longer and a Staff using saberist can concentrate more fully upon his or her opponent. |
| - | Dual Sabers - Green Stance: |
| A full saber training is required for this sabertype. An art form of its own, the Duals style of lightsaber combat is geared towards gaining an advantage over other saberists, starting out fairly average and growing in strength progressively as a duel stretches out longer and a Duals using saberist can concentrate more fully upon his or her opponent. |
| - | Single Saber - Cyan Stance: |
| A style of lightsaber combat only available(so far!) in the Full Authentic game mode, Cyan stance(Sometimes known as Tavion stance.) is a quick stance with excellent chaining ability, somewhat stronger than Blue stance. |
| - | Single Saber - Magenta Stance: |
| A style of lightsaber combat only available(so far!) in the Full Authentic game mode, Magenta stance(Sometimes known as Desann stance.) is a slow stance with poor chaining ability and limited defense, geared towards few, but very powerful, crushing attacks on an opponent. |
Choose the style that fits you best, no saber stance/type is the best in combat. Any of them is capable of defeating the other. Keep an eye on your BP-amount, your stance/type, your opponent's stance/type and its costs towards his. Defensively blocking with the Dual Sabers drains your BP-amount faster than with the Red Stance, watch for these differences, young Padawan.
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