CUEmu - Thread Posts

Chickenlad

Tue Apr 27, 2004 10:54 pm

OK, let's not get caught with our pants down. What are some good questions for TH for next week?

Some things that come to mind for me:

a) What is the sys_mang_error_7 that causes factories to stop? Is it related to hopper size?

b) What reasoning is behind non-decaying houses/harvesters? Why can't this be changed? Candles are not cutting it for renewable income.

c) (If this still happens) Why do crafting stations require architect to make, yet use artisan experimentation points? Can you fix this please?

...

Chickenlad

Tue Apr 27, 2004 11:01 pm

#2

Doc, are you compiling a collection of questions for us to vote on for next week?

Personally, I'm a little disappointed that our first ever question had to do with what "the other guy" is doing...

There are too damn many important merchant questions out there to waste time on that /shrug.

-Snift

DocSavag

Wed Apr 28, 2004 6:06 am

#3

Chickenlad wrote:

Doc, are you compiling a collection of questions for us to vote on for next week?

Personally, I'm a little disappointed that our first ever question had to do with what "the other guy" is doing...

There are too damn many important merchant questions out there to waste time on that /shrug.

-Snift

I would have been excercising severe editorial control to ask anything else in that first question. It is the number one issue for this forum and has been for 4 months or more. Disagree with it or not any objective view of this forum would tell you it is the most often raised topic. Now that we have that out of the way we can ask others.

We have a list of 9 other questions that we posed to the devs when they originally asked for 10 questions, but that was in January and I'll be happy to ask whatever is on your minds. So by all means lets come up with a question for next week.

In case you want to select from the questions we came up with before:

1. Currently there is a lot of debate about the fact that there is no skill point check for managing vendors. Is it the intent of the development team that vendors operate normally even when owned by players who no longer have the Management skill required to place that vendor?

2. Merchants are eager to have to bigger role in player cities and the best idea seems to be a Mall/Store front which would be unique to player cities and give merchants the ability to open large scale operations instead of the merchant tent which is suited for smaller shops.

3. Vendor appearance is important to many people and currently it isn't possible to affect the physical appearance of your vendor once it is created. Is it technically possible to have Image Desgners do a "makeover" on an existing NPC vendor?

4. We understand that most of the Terminal/Droids don't speak and thus cannot adbark, however the Protocol Droid has a special place in Star Wars as being very vocal..having the Protocol Droid at master be unable to adbark seems wrong to many merchants. Can this be changed to allow the Protocol droid to adbark?

5. Many people feel that Merchant would greatly benefit from a profession revamp along the lines of what is being done with chefs, planned for smugglers, and other professions. Is this something that is planned for the merchant profession?

6. Having to destroy a vendor to change the name is a very burdensome task. Assuming that this isn't currently possible, although other items in game can be renamed (backpacks, structures) would the development team be open to researching the possibility of adding this feature in the future?

7. The item categorys are in need of a serious revamp. There are categories with no items in them, items in the wrong categories, and items which don't seem to have any category. Is there a current plan to do a complete review of the categories?

8. Backpacks and other containers have been problematic on vendors off and on since launch. Is it currently acceptable to offer and sell containers like this on vendors and if not is their a plan to make it work better ?

9. Many merchants and artisans feel that one way to help with the database and item storage is to allow merchants to sell items in crates/resource crates and allow the buyer to buy one or more units (having the vendor remove the item from the crate for retrieval) Is this something that might be possible in the near future?

10. Recently the entry fee for a building was changed from a very high number to a fairly low one. Since this is used to facilitate private sales (by utiliziing the entry list on a structure to exempt payment of the fee) many merchants/crafters would like this number raised to a much higer level than it is now (in the 9,000,000 range). Is there a compelling reason why this can't be done fairly soon?

Message Edited by DocSavag on 04-28-2004 09:09 AM

----------------------------------
Chataka Windae
Rifleman/Combat Medic
CEO, Windae Enterprises
Mesric Sanctuary Founder

Songe

Wed Apr 28, 2004 6:10 am

#4

Well the problem is, anything we will ask, they will say it will be revamped in the vendor publish anyway. So...

Anyway, I really like question 9.

I think question 8 has been answered partly as they decided to leave it in game though no? And for question 5, isn't there supposed to be a vendor revamp in publish 10 or so? Just curious.

Message Edited by Songe on 04-28-2004 09:12 AM

------

Novice Lekku Stomper

DocSavag

Wed Apr 28, 2004 6:31 am

#5

Songe wrote:

Well the problem is, anything we will ask, they will say it will be revamped in the vendor publish anyway. So...

The real purpose of the "10 Questions" was to answer broad philosophical questions about professions or to answer small detail oriented questions about a profession. It wasn't meant as a wish list or bug list (which is what most of the lists became ours included) The problem I had in thinking up questions is that I don't know of many details of our profession that are that difficult to figure out. Maybe some of you do have something along those lines.

To me one of the best questions from this last round was the question from Droid Engineers about crafting station effects on crafting. It was long rumored that there was no real effect on the assembly/experimentation but no one knew for sure. The answer while confusing for some was straightforward. There is no effect on your chances for failure/success with a droid crafting station. It is a neutral crafting station that merely allows you access to the functionality of a private crafting station.

----------------------------------
Chataka Windae
Rifleman/Combat Medic
CEO, Windae Enterprises
Mesric Sanctuary Founder

Chickenlad

Wed Apr 28, 2004 9:24 am

#6

Like Songe said, I agree that we are doomed to a "wait for the~~combat~~ I mean vendor revamp" unless we ask a very specific question. Right now, the most important thing for me is finding out what (if anything) is being done about items that disappear for a day...or two, or vendors that do the same, but this will get the "wait til revamp" reply.

Some of the questions we already have answers, or hints of answers to:

1. Answered

2. (Mall creation) - actually, under the architect forum, this is one of the two possible choices that architects are voting on for being able to create.

3. (Image Designer Vendor Makeover) - I believe this was hinted at being allowed in the ID mini-publish, but it could still be worth asking. In my opinion, this is a good "type" of question to ask, because it's not likely to get the "wait til revamp" answer, unless of course, its implementation is coming with the revamp.

4. (Protocol Droid/Ad Barking)

5. (Broad Merchant Revamp Question) - We know this is coming in a later publish, in my opinion we should strike it from the list, as it's like asking if water is indeed wet.

6. (Ability to Change Vendor Name without Destroying It) - Probably a "wait til revamp" answer forthcoming, but seems like a worthwhile question.

7. (Items Category Revamp) - Probably one of the best questions, as it addresses something that will not necessarily be resolved/dealt with in the merchant/vendor revamp. Item classification extends well beyond the scope of merchant-hood. (editorial note follows) This one is not important to me personally, but I believe it has a pretty good chance of revealing something new, without getting a "wait for revamp" answer.

8. (Backpacks/allowability/Improve Functionality) - IMO a definite "wait til revamp" answer if we ask this one.

9. (Consumers retrieving single items from crates on vendors) - I think this is a pretty good question, but one that will be difficult to answer. A variation of this idea has been kicked around these boards from forum to forum for months, going hand in hand with the notion of allowing things to come in a single crate of 1000. It would let us know, perhaps, a glimpse of how they are planning to start dealing with the database issue.

10. (Entry fee) - I doubt we'll see this one reverted, as cs doesn't want to have to deal with the tickets about "didn't see the amount of the entry fee til too late".

I like a few of these, and think some of them could get viable answers.One question I would like to see asked:

"Are there any plans to improve the benefits gained for achieving and maintaining merchant mastery?"

The current perk just doesn't make it that worthwhile.

-Snift

Songe

Wed Apr 28, 2004 9:34 am

#7

I like Snift's question as well. Unless we get an answer like 'we can't say anything for now' like lots of professions got so far bah.

------

Novice Lekku Stomper

Kdr_Kane

Wed Apr 28, 2004 10:03 am

#8

1. Never seen it.

2. Because owners pay maintenance and installations already decay. That's what maintenance is for.

3. So Architects have a reason to master Artisan also.

DocSavag

Wed Apr 28, 2004 11:31 am

#9

We will get TH's pattented " What do you think it should be?" responses to that question which is maddening but the point of it is him trying to get us to supply the wishlist instead of asking him to generate it. I think we have identified a number of features that could be put in Master in our top issues list. I would love a question that gave us knowledge we didn't have before the question and doesn't evoke a response of "wait" or "we need more information" or something like that. I admin I don't know what that question is.

----------------------------------
Chataka Windae
Rifleman/Combat Medic
CEO, Windae Enterprises
Mesric Sanctuary Founder

Chickenlad

Wed Apr 28, 2004 11:34 am

#10

Message Edited by Virrago on 04-28-2004 02:55 PM

Kdr_Kane

Thu Apr 29, 2004 12:04 am

#11

I never said it didn't exist. I haven't heard this as being a big issue and it isn't with me.

I'm more concerned with OMUs being crated.

Be careful of your language, it might get you into trouble.

Haruspex77

Thu Apr 29, 2004 5:09 pm

#12

How about this for a question?

In response to the DE's combat droid proposal, SOE referenced "balance" as disqualifying it, and implied there is a concept of balance between the money-game professions and the combat oriented ones. Does SOE expect to be able to balance Merchant so there is as much improvement in effectiveness between Artisan Bus 3 and Master merchant (now discouragingly similar) as there is between Marksman Rifle-3 and Master Rifleman or betweenEng-3 and Master Architect/DE/WS/AS? If SOE doesn't have any ideas about how to accomplish this, would they consider lowering the skillpoint requirements for this unrewarding profession?

I would love to see the response to that! Even more, I would like to see it circulated among the devs and have them forced to consider it.

Being a merchant is a rewarding activity, but learning the Merchant profession doesn't help much.

Songe

Thu Apr 29, 2004 6:56 pm

#13

The problem is, we want more insensitives to master merchant, we don't want to see the profession devaluated.

------

Novice Lekku Stomper

Architect Archive

Thread: Next question?