Hero Assault

Hero assault is one of SWBF2's seven vanilla game modes. It enables players to choose from all hero characters available in the game. The game (as intended by the developers) revolves around two teams, heroes and villains, fighting each in a full-map battle. The first team to reach a designated amount of enemy kills wins the match. The SWBF2 community has implemented several improvements on this game mode over time to improve the quality of gameplay such as creating a dueling system and enforcing no force rules. Such changes to the gameplay vary depending on the server. Despite the mode being merely included as a "bonus mode" by developers, it has garnered wide popularity and a dedicated hero assault community.

Development
Hero assault was added to the game as a bonus mode by its developers, receiving significantly less attention than the core FPS game modes (conquest, CTF). It is playable in only one map: Mos Eisley.

The Ancient Age
The first few weeks of SWBF2 was a time of discovery and enthusiasm. The focus of the game at this time was on the mainstream FPS scene, the main reason players purchased the game in the first place. With so many players however, hero assault nonetheless was given attention, albeit from a majorly casual perspective.

The ancient age spans the first three months of the SWBF2 community’s existence.

Dawn of SWBF2
Shortly after the game's release and the birth of the SWBF2 community, hero assault was interpret as little more than what it was intended for: a bonus mode. Players looking for a short break from competitive FPS would swing by a Mos Eisley: Hero Assault server and play whatever Jedi/Sith character they wished. There was thus minimal competition in the early hero assault scene.

Role playing servers became popular exclusively in hero assault in these early days, in which participants were prohibited from killing each other. Players would assume various town roles such as bartenders (in the Mos Eisley Cantina) and Guards.

At this time, multiplayer servers of all game modes were abundant, many full and active. Most of these servers, particularly the less popular hero assault servers, were non-dedicated, hosted by a player through his own vanilla game client. Most players were too new and too young to know about ingame admin commands; in the case that a mischievous player were to come to a non-dedi server and terrorize it, the admin more often than not either had to deal with the player through ingame chat and combat or shut down the server. The few admins who knew how to use the ingame admin commands could only boot people, which meant that they were not completely safe either. Fortunately, such mischievous players were not common.

Rise of Force Gameplay
It did not take long until a few players started to view hero assault from a competitive point of view. These players observed that the most victorious hero assault players were capable of consistently stunning their opponents before finishing them off. Though mash and dash attacks were observed as efficient means of stunning, the most obvious means to stunning and thus winning was the utilization of force powers capable of immobilizing players. There were three such force powers: force push, force pull, and force choke. Therefore, the first competitive hero assault players focused on exclusively using these three attacks, and refraining from using melee attacks except as a means to finish off a stunned opponent.

The first force players who realized the above rose to dominate the hero assault scene; this did not last long. It turned out that the transition from a noob to a force player was extremely simple. Hero assault players became force players Faster than players were entering the game. Fortunately for the force players,this was not the end of their dominion. There was always a plentiful supply of noobs coming from the mainstream FPS scene for force players to kill, which provided continuous enjoyment and glory for force players even in spite of often having to compete against other fellow force players.

Rise of the Clans
Shortly after the majority of the active player base became comfortable and familiar with the game, the core of the community began to divert its focus to establishing order. This led to the establishment of the first native SWBF2 clans. These clans were numerous and flooded the game, ranging from simple clans created for fun by a single players to organized clans created by the “elite” players of the game to either isolate themselves from the noobs or to control the noobs. The rise of so many different clans with various goals all interacting with each other led to the introduction of a political component into the game.

Some of these clans hosted the first dedicated servers. Dedicated servers were not only more capable of handling great amounts of players with minimal lag, but also gave admins the ability to easily boot and ban players. It was nonetheless common for servers to be devoid of admins. The existence of rules in servers led to players seeking to break rules, which would later lead to the practice of professional glitching.

Rise of the Glitchers
The game was released with many ingame glitches. The glitching scene became much more serious in FPS servers, where glitchers were capable of dominating entire servers. Clans such as the notorious –SMD- clan specialized in glitching, and brought the practice of professional glitching to the mainstream SWBF2 community.

Mos Eisley, the home map for hero assault, was filled with various glitches that to this day remain unpatched. Fortunately, these glitches largely consists of nothing more than bad object placing and wall hacks that allows players to get inside buildings not meant to be entered. It became a common pastime for hero assault players to explore these glitches. Some players, however, would use these glitches to their advantage in combat to become invincible. Such glitchers tended to be little more than the standard force player, however. Glitching never made its way to the competitive scene, and was quickly prohibited in competitive hero assault servers.

Rise of No Force and The Dueling System
The three offensive force abilities far overwhelmed short range melee attacks in hero assault scene. Therefore, melee attacks were rarely used as a primary attack in the competitive hero assault scene. New players unaware of the overwhelming power of force abilities used melee attacks as their primary attack by nature however, but many of these new players would evolve into force noobs.

It was almost impossible to win without the use of force in public hero assault servers at this time. The first no force players would either meet in private servers or boot players who used force powers. As more players became irritated at the simplicity and redundancy of death by competitive force players, no force rose in popularity amongst casual players.

The concept of 1v1 duels came naturally to the first no forcers, who eventually established a formal way to duel. Dueling norms such as crouching to initiate duels and waiting in line to duel were also established thereafter, and were reinforced in the first no force public servers. At this time, dedicated no force public servers were nonexistent; instead, the first no force dueling servers were often hosted by no force duelists, who were responsible for educating guests on the limitations on force powers and the rules to dueling.

Defensive Force Gameplay
As the most dedicated FPS players became proficient in FPS gameplay and distanced themselves from the common noob, force players in hero assault progressed likewise in skill. The main threat to the common force player was another force player. This led to the rise of the first defensive force players, who pioneered the use of block and rooftop whoring in hero assault. Though defensive force players have existed in the shadows of the hero assault scene, it was not until the creation of the first competitive hero assault clans that defensive force players capable of dominating the common force player became popular.

At long last, the competition between the competitive defensive force players led to a game mode that was to be taken seriously. More players entered the hero assault scene with a competitive mindset, and as such competitive hero assault broke into the mainstream, leading to the Golden Age of hero assault.

The Force Pros
Competitive force players continuously sought an edge against each other. A few of the most competitive of these players would go on to pioneer the art of ramping. Others, such as -)G(- Mawk, would commence the critical study of not only the mechanics of force powers, but the mechanics of basic melee attacks. Shortly after this knowledge was spread amongst the elite force community, the first force pros capable of dominating against all levels of hero assault players – noobs, force noobs, defensive force players – entered the hero assault scene. For the duration of the golden age, the few players who managed to reach the status of force pro would massacre the innumerable hordes of noobs and force noobs in public hero assault servers with ease. These players saw minimal competition – they were seen to have essentially mastered hero assault.

The Warlords
The no force community was small and hidden. Few players would bother to accept the rules of no force and dueling, and even fewer players took the time to play as competitively as in other mainstream game modes. Only a chosen few chose to master the art of no force to their maximum ability. These players would be later known as the Warlords. The Warlords rose separately in different parts of the community, and each has their own unique background story. They individually pioneered the use of the melee moves otherwise neglected in force hero assault – backslash, dash attack, and stomp attack – across all hero assault character classes, as well as the first instances of counterpunching. When the time came that the Warlords were so above the rest of the no force community in terms of skill that they had no competition except each other, they were hailed their title of Warlords.

To effectively demonstrate their skill against opponents, the Warlords practiced the first 1v1’s, in which the first player to reach 10 kills against their opponent would be deemed victorious. The practice of 1v1s quickly spread to the greater no force community of lesser skilled noobs, and the practice of duels became more widespread than ever.

The Warlords, like the force pros in hero assault force servers, would dominate the no force community to a degree never to be seen again. This is due to the tiny number of enlightened Warlords (less than 10) against hundreds of oblivious noobs. It was slaughter.

Rise of the Superpowers
The few Warlords and force pros in existence became extremely influential and powerful. Clans and communities that contained any of these elite players, no matter the purpose or the clan, soared far above the common clans to the top of the social hierarchy of the SWBF2 hero assault community.

While most of the Warlords fully occupied themselves with bloodshed and nonstop slaughtering of noobs during the golden age, one Warlord in particular had different interests. This Warlord, known as Primus, sought friendship and a tight-knitted community above mindless competition, even in spite of being a skilled Warlord. He created the ^Hidden Arrows^ with a group of friends. The group stood out as a no force clan not bent on competitive domination, but rather mere friendship. Furthermore, ^Primus^ trained all of his members until his group majorly consisted of elite no force players. Through its friendly yet elitist approach to hero assault, ^Hidden Arrows^ quickly rose to become the first no force superpower. ^Hidden Arrows^ took no force into mainstream SWBF2, spreading the delicate art of no force and dueling through the community like never before.

The No Force Pros
Near the end of the Golden Age, the rate of noobs flooding SWBF2 was at its peak. Warlords and force pros were in competitive paradise, blissfully plowing through endless masses of noobs. Within hero assault, active players began to notice how pleasurable it would be to be one of these Warlords, who were interpreted by the young and enthusiastic masses as being god-like. They admired the ability of the Warlords to kill force players without even having to resort to using force. It was at this time that active no force players could no longer resist the urge to become like the Warlords; masses of these players began seeing hero assault through a purely competitive lenses, and sought to quickly attain mastery of no force combat.

Though some of the Warlords would sparingly teach their methods to average no force players, there were far too many no force players for all of them to enjoy associations with any one Warlord. Instead, the majority of these active no forcers desiring domination observed the Warlords, and spread their practices and methods of to their friends and clan members. These players commonly practiced the effective use of backslash, dash attack, stomp attack, and blocking against force opponents. This set of skills was generally all that it took for the first no force pros to rise above the common oblivious hero assault noob.

Due to the relative ease of becoming a no force pro and quickly being able to dominate masses of noobs, the amount of no force pros joining the community rose exponentially. Nonetheless, there were always more fresh noobs flooding into the hero assault scene than there were noobs converting into no force pros, keeping the no force pro community satisfied for a few weeks.

When the bloodthirsty no force pros found that they could not attain the level of domination or mastery that the Warlords enjoyed, they turned against themselves. This led to the majority of the no force pro community neglecting the noobly masses, effectively causing the first rift between the noobs and the pros in the NF-HA community. This widespread social division led to the end of the enthusiastic and adventurous Golden Age, and the start of the Cold Times.