Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: The Unofficial Top Five BE issues
Great list!
As a casual gamer who has been a master BE (which is my second mastered profession. The first was CH) for about 3 months, and as a pet lover (I know, don't remind me of the word poke-wars) which means my major business is pet crafting, and as a bad businessman because most of my products are given away to friends/guildmates/genuine newbies, here are my top 5 issues:
2. CL on template
(it would be even better if CL is shown DURING experimentation to monitor how it would change with each experimentation point spent.)
1. Critical fails rate
(I do feel that the critical failure rate has dropped since publish 7, but I still had 3 straight critical failures in a roll last saturday when I was crafting CL10 pets using the voritor dasher / huurton pub samples with my crafting droid. Just for your information, my battle fatigue was single digit at that moment.)
12. BE-specific skill tapes/attachments
7. Removal of sample cap
24. Resists group on DNA samples
(I know special protection and effectiveness are indifferent as a kind of protection, but from what Mirrl and Sumorex and other reputable BEs have illustrate to us, they do act differently during pet crafting. Actually with the help of SWGCreatures, I've already get used to seeing inadequate stat on a DNA sample. But other issues listed just doesn't seem as important to me, so I'll still put it here)
These are also important, in order of importance to me:
14. Decrease in chef additive ingredients
6. DNA storage
(It was already addressed in the last top 5 list and the devs have already responded to this, but it's still an important issue. Though when I carry an empty backpack and a few droids with storage modules with me, I never have the patience to fill them all up with DNA samples)
18. Sampling mind cost
(As a mon calamarian I don't feel the mind cost too high, especially when we have BE enhanced brandy now.)
15. BE content
(My opinion is we already have lots of tissues to make and pet crafting is already the most sophisticated crafting system in this game. However, more content is always welcomed though)
23. Step down ability
(I don't really need this except when I'm trying to make a CL70 pet and I have an "amazing sucess" during experimentation. Yes I hate amazing sucess in a CL70 attempt as much as I love critical failure during experimentation in a CL10 attempt. But then I believe we should have another revamp to the pet crafting system so that "invalid pets" (those over CL70) could not be made, in combine with the "show CL on template" issue. E.g., a dynamic system calculating the CL during experimentation, so when we experiment too much on power, a cap would be put to the experimentation limit on physique, or when we do not experiment on power at all, the cap on physique would be a lot higher, etc. If "step down ability" has to be implemented, it should be implemented to all crafting professions. Therefore it shouldn't be a BE top 5 issue. Though why other professions want a "step down ability" is beyond my imagination)
20. Sampling animation
(I don't have the feeling that the sampling animation is hindering my chance of survival. However, since I have a macro for DNA sampling which is simply "/stand;/pause 1;/sampleDNA;/sit" (which means that I'd be sitting when I'm sampling DNA, so to recover mind faster), I do feel that the "stand" animation is too slow. But then again this doesn't sound like a BE-specific issue)
22. DNA factory
(This is a nice feature to have, but to me it is not really that important to make itself into our top 5)
5. More creatures
(As above again. I'd love to see birds added though)
10. Redeed tamed pets
(As above, but even lower priority)
9. Pet size
(I hate to say this again, but: as above)
4. Harvesting dead creatures
11. Ability to harvest more meat(I would rather see a revamp on scout / ranger on these)
13. Category on bazaar
(I don't know because I never sell my pets on the bazzar. Things might change though when they revamp the merchant profession. However, this do remind me of a player who told me he could easily find a 100k HAM heavy armor 100% resist to everything with 1k damage on the bazaar for 5k credits rather than hearing me explaining to him why that is impossible and that I would sell a "much inferior" CL70 pet to him for 175k credits)
8. Pet slicing
(You know, slicing a living pet, sounds so scary to me)
17. Growth halting stim
(On first glance, this sounds a good feature. However, after someone has pointed out how you could growth halt a mutant rancor clone, it doesn't sound too good, unless it only halts the growth of its size, not its HAM and CL or such)
25. Tradable schematic
(I do make schematic for guildmates and let them tip me any amount they wish, just like I give away pets (CL10-70) to guildmates without charge, so I guess I'm not in the position to comment on this. However, I doubt if this would solve the problem, unless BEs can't get resources from others and use others' factories?)
21. AOE special attacks
(Is this a CH issues instead? Is there any wild tamable CH pets now that has AE attacks?)
3. BE Guide
(This is actually as important as the top 5 issues. But since this does not seem to involve programming or additional coding, I don't think this should be put to the list. However, this should be done as soon as possible, as promised. Or they could simply adopt the guides by Mirrl, Sumorex, etc. and give them their most deserved credits. But please don't set specific guidelines for us to limit our creativity, i.e., no such thing as "900 HAM no resist 2.5 attack speed 80-90 damage for CL10 pet". Even with a new validity system in place I would still like to make a 1100 HAM pet with 30 damage OR a 900 HAM pet with 80 damage.)
16. Secret Research Data
(I believe I've seen TH posted on this. Since we still have no idea what would secret research data do, I'll just put this here. You know, if the Devs did not put a slot for "secret research data" in the schematic at all, we would be happy with the chef tissues in their current form, without any complaints at all)
Oh and I have missed the addition of "creator" tag in the examination window of a tamed BE pet!
Please put it inmy top 5 issue list as the 5th issue, and push the "resist group" thing out of the list (the 6th issue).
#1 Pet validity
I 110% agree with Nancy this has to be the number one issue the DEVs need to addess.
#2 CL level displayed as creature is being crafted
There just is no excuse on this one. DNA needs to be hand sampled...each DNA (even from the same species) can have different impacts on the CL of the creature... Unlessone is a spread sheet freak there is no way to make a certain CL pet reliably. Add to that DNA sampling is time consuming and each time we make a creature we face the risk of a crit on combine, crits on all the experimentations, and crits on final combine, it just isnt cool that we have to play the "guess what the CL is going to be" game.... If the crits/fails dont "kill" my creatures the borked CL does 75% of the time.
#3 Crit fails
DNA takes a long time to gather... good DNA is rare... It is doublejeopardy when its a rare creature with good DNA... Being able toout right loose DNA twice (templet and combine), being able to completely FUBAR your clone in the experimentation phase **plus** having everything be for not if the CL level isnt just right (refer to issue #2) just makes for an un-fun process.
#4 Sampling fail rate
Again, I have to agree with Nancy. A MBE shouldnt fail left and right when collecting DNA... Furthermore a MBE shouldnt fail left and right when we sample from our clones... Under this same issue we should be able to get a minimum of 3 samples from all our clones with a chance to get up to 8 samples... having a clone **poof** can ruin HOURS worth of careful work and planning.
#5 Increase the sample cap
Another biggie. We have only a handful of creatures to sample from to make CL60+ pets... Only 3 of those are of any use and two of em are EXTREMLY rare leaving us only with M. Rancors to use.
THINGS WE SHOULDN'TWANT:
#1We **shouldnt** want AOE specials to come through... this is the one and only perk a MCH has for his wild tames... with out this little perk there would never be a reason to tame an animal. As a former MCH that is a big draw to the MCH profession... finding your own creatures... Letting AOE specials come through would be the final nail in to coffin for an already kicked in the balls profession. No no no no no 
#2 We **shouldnt** want schematics to be non-transferable. If that ever happens the pet stim market will be killed. Pet stims without doc level components SUCK. No doctor is going to waste their time running 1000 ASL 1000 ACRDM 1000-3000 ABEC.
Besides, the easy work around to this would be to /transferstructure of one of your chem factories to a doctor to stick in a schematic and then have them transfer it back. It is stupid. Yes it sucks that newbie MBE makes free chef schematics but this would be an overkill
#3 Growth stopping "stims". To add this in the whole "growth cycle" would have to be re-done with creatures... otherwise all you would have to do is make one uber pet and stop it at CL10 for the perfect game unbalancing pet.
#4 A tell it all guild monthly feature/holocron. MBE works hard to be MBE.... Giving away all our secrets to every newbie MBE would really hurt the profession.
#5 pet slicing. I actually proposed this idea a long long time ago... but after being a MBE for a long time I dont see this as being good anymore... ***unless*** you could only slice wild pets... otherwise is would just be yet another kick in the balls to MCH making any pets they can tame in the wild even more useless... A BE CL70 pets that has stats of 13k hams, armor, 60% kinetic and/or energy (with various other protections) 500ish damage, .55 to-hit and 1.98 attack speed is already better then a MCH can every hope to tame in the wild (except maybe for the uber rare wild bull rancor with its AOE specials).
Anyhow, that's my two cents
Message Edited by SomeUser on 04-06-2004 07:27 AM
Vezek Hey 1 star idiot... Everyone has the right to say what they think is a critical issue for this Profession. Just because you don't agree with what I think is important doesn't mean what I think isn't important. So, I am going to 5 star anyone who is one stared by this idiot and I hope someone else would do the same in return.
Oh and BTW, at least I have the balls to come out and say when I one star someone, you my friend are an invertebrate.
#! - My #1 is storage. Needing 3 houses to store raw resources is ridiculous. I fill 3 houses with raw DNA samples, so I store 450 samples. Theoretically this will make 90 creatures. However, as a master BE, I enjoy abour a 30-35% failure rate, so I can only count on around 60-65 creatures from my 3 houses of storage. Of these 60-65 creatures, how many will miss the intended CL mark because I CANNOT TELL what the final creature level will be until is is created? So I must resample and thus create more raw resouces, but that is another story.... Let's say 50 creatures make it successfully to the marketing stage. How many weaponsmiths, for example, need 3 houses of raw materials to produce 50 guns? Let's face it, DNA storage sucks.
#2 - Crtiical Fails. This is a well-known issue, and I don't know how else to restate it. We carry around unstackable resources, gathered by-hand, one-at-a-time from every corner of the galaxy, and should NOT endure total loss of effort due to an unaccecptably high rate of critical crafting failures. DEVS - this crafting profession is not like the others! We cannot obtain raw resources in bulk and we cannot manufacture DNA products in a factory. Lower critical fails on BE crafting or return the template to the inventory!
#3 - Pet Validity checks. Let's get some consistency on the pet checks or eliminate them entirely. A level 10 creature with the HAMS of a level 30 is valid while a level 12 creature with the HAMS of a level 18 is not? If your mysterious criteria deems a pet to be invalid, then make it invalid at the template stage - give us a message or something as we create it. Don't invalidate it after you have allowed us to create and sell it!! GEEZ!
#4 - Harvesting dead creatures after a sample - even if it nets us only a few hundred units of meat after a night's work, at least we will have something for our night's efforts, since a third of our DNA will be lost to critical failures. There is no reason why we shouldn't be able to harvest from a DNA'ed to death creature. What do we do - suck the meat out with our needles?
#5 - Even GENERAL BEGUIDLINES would be acceptable at this late stage of the game. How long has this game been out of testing? 10 months? And bright, dedicated players are still trying to guess your system for creature creating? If you are afraid that "telling all" would ruin the gameplay then provide us a general outline to flesh our on our own. For example tell us that resists are interrelated in developing creature level - say if kinetic, energy and blast are greater than 20% but less than 30%, the creature level will be between 12-20 or something. Throw us a bone for pity's sake!
Ebacca, Master BE, Master CH, Tarquinas
Albion_DeCrappa wrote:This we DO NOT want!
3) Any guide to BE that defines the creature cloning formula. All I need is some day old BE making pets just as well as me because he popped some formula into MS Excel.
4) We are getting a DNA sample from the creature, what more do you want? You can have one or the other, Meat or DNA. although I think it should be Meat, Milk, or DNA. But they're giving us a gift by allowing us to Milk and Sample/Harvest.
7) Removal of the sample cap. CH has been nerfed enough, so much so that I can't sell 25 count crates of 33/1162 Pet Stim Cs on Dantooine for 35k. Alls we need is every player picking up CH so they can walk around with a preverbial Krayt dragon.
10) This game is not meant to be Solod. If you want to play a solo game go play an Infocom game.
11) That's what Rangers are for, they collect more meat then the standard character. You should have enough SP to take BE and Ranger.
18) Lower mind cost? Tell that to carbineers!
22) Putting DNA templates in a factory would probably require a full revamp of factories. Since factories require same resources to basically make clones of the schematic used. To be able to make clones or DNA templates in a factory would mean that all the DNA samples used in a certain statistic would have to be exactly the same. And we all know that's not possible.
23) Now this is an excellent idea!
25) No way. I don't want to have to take Master Doctor to be able to make Pet Stims of any quality. Come on, really, what Master Doctor is going to waste 5 days of his factory time to make you 1000 ALS, 2000 ABEC, and 1000 ACRDM? No, schematics should remain tradable.
I agree strongly with all this with the following additions:
3) I think we do need to know how CL is determined. How the stats are combined however, should remain undefined and rife with speculation.
11) We need more meat, but it's rangers who should collect it. Up the harvest for rangers to at least 3 times the current level so it will help counter the fact that most rangers are total flakes who rarely come through with the meat requests. This would help BE's a great deal. Interdependancy is a good thing, but it also entails a great deal of waste and inefficiency that needs to be considered in the systems design.
I worked for about 8 hours assembling three groups and trying to get to the bottom of the nightspider cult cave on Dathomir for the sole purpose of sampling the Reclusive Cavern Spider Queen DNA (level 70). I got ONE Above Average quality sample before it flipped on its back dead. I have two chances for it to critical fail: once during DNA assembly and once during creature assembly. Then the experimentation failure rate will be another problem. In spite of the 0% chance of fails reported, I get an average of one to two experimental failures per creature (at Master BE). This is for a pet to give away, rather than sell. Even if it comes out the way I planned, there is no way it will ever generate money like a good factory run of Republic Blasters. If it fails, they'll need to lock me away for a while.
So I give you a hearty four thumbs up (hey, they don't call me Dex for nothing) on this one.
Hylidex, Gorath Server, Theed, Naboo. Silver Phoenix Alliance Guild, Moenia, Naboo.
I was just thinking...why could they not make DNA harvesting like Meat or Hide harvesting? Say when you take a DNA sample you get a random stack of 1-5 DNA samples. Each sample would be exactly alike...that would solve the stacking issue and also give us more ability to experiment with like DNA's. I'm not sure if someone had this idea earlier but I just thought I would put my two yen in...
Spector Talon
Is number 18 really an issue? If you get a buff for focus and/or use food/spice the mind cost is not that bad on sampling. Most people ignore all stats except the big 3 HAM. But the others are important too. I can sample for the entire time my muon buff lasts and never run out of mind.
Raisputtin, Sunrunner