Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: 19 answers
Thunderheart wrote :
(an answer to medics which I cannot quote because it's coded in HTML, making it needlessly exponentially harder to communicate effectively.)
When I asked ' Why is it going to take more than a year post-launch to make this happen?', I am referring to the fact that it is April now, so if Publish 8 (Droid's Rebuilt) hits Apr 27, Publish 9 (Jedi Re-vamp phase 1) at the end of May, and Publish 10 (Jedi revamp phase 2) at the end of June...Well...where is the combat balance? Unless of course you plan to ship these guys out faster than once a month...
Now, maybe the combat balance will be a mini-publish or something. (hardly mini though, lol)
Anyhow, I am glad you read my last post as being positive. It can be hard sometimes to convey that on the forums.
Thunderheart wrote:
surreal2000 wrote:
Why is specials so far down on the list? I mean HAM and combat tables are well and good, but the specials that haven't been working as intended are shuffled to the bottom of the list? Doesn't seem to make much sense to me...
The professions who have the most working specials seem to be the flavors of the month. I really TRULY do not want to see any profession get nerfed. I just want to see all my specials work the way they say they will in the skill tree, no matter which profession I pick up.
Why is it going to take more than a year post-launch to make this happen? Now you are saying that it isn't even on the schedule?
Man...re-reading this post, it sounds like a harsh post, so I will end it on a good note and compliment on something that I think went really well: The chef revamp. KUDOS!
Well, they are still valid, positively presented questions
Why is specials so far down on the list?
They have to be coded in a specific order because the first item is a foundation for the next, which is a foundation for the next and so on. For instance, if we balanced all the specials tomorrow, they would all be connected into bunches of numbers that are effected by the current system. Then when the HAM went in, all the specials wouldn't work properly because they would have been based on different time delays, speeds, etc.
The order in which they are presented is very much the order in which they have to be designed and coded.
I really TRULY do not want to see any profession get nerfed.
Well, in essence, all of the combat professions would be "nerfed" simultaneously, so it shouldnt feel like a nerf, it should feel like a change in gameplay - - which is why the majority of the combat balance has to be done at the same time. Some abilities will increase, others will decrease and all the specials will be useful. To do that, they have to be "balanced" (hence the name).
Why is it going to take more than a year post-launch to make this happen?
It's not. We've been talking about things internally a lot. I've stressed the importance of these changes and everyone agrees. We've been going over the implementation details for a couple of weeks now so that we can get this back on track. JustG will be going into more detail in his next State of the Game letter which will be coming out in the next couple of days.
Wow great thanks TH. It's good to hear from the community liason, about stuff the community is asking to hear about, and not just what you want to tell us. I understand the overwhelming position it is, with all the professions and other systems. But we do want questions aswered, and not always just, "hey this new thing that know one asked about or knows about it coming soon." We need feed back, and the revamp of the communications channels between the SOE team and community was a hope at that. So thanks for this, please keep this kind of thing up.
On another note, see my hilighted quote above. You contradict yourself, and I'm afraid I totally disagree with you on this TH. You can't balance15 systems all at once when only10 of them are working to begin with. Those other 13 onese might need to be balanced up or down, BEFORE the entire system balance. Otherwise, they won't ALL be balanced after the whole CB goes through. It's guarenteed. It doesn't make any logical sence to try and balance out all 15 systems at once, when only 10 of them are working.
You may say it's because you don't want to have to do more work. Meaning you don't want to work on the broken ones, and then do the CB. But if you do the CB first, you still have to go back and redo/rebalance the 5 that were (and still are) broken. Because now they are "balanced" but still broken.
Take this example. Pistoleer is now broken. You do the CB. Pistoleer is still broken because all the CB does is balance out damage,HAM, weapons, resists/armor. So you have to fix the specials, and now you do that. (if you're keeping with me you see you have now done the same amount of work as if you had fixed pistoleer first) OK, the CB is done and the specials in pistoleer get fixed. Now we see "oh wow when everything is actually working with pistoleer they are complete bad A's and sweep the battlefield. They are not in balance with anything any more." So now you have to go and rework pistoleer again so it's actually balanced with everything else in the system that went through the CB. (now you can see you have done more work then if you had fixed the specials first)
So, TH, can you please tell me how SOE plans on doing this whole CB/fixing combat professions in one fell swoop, logically, and with less work? I'm desperately curious. Don't get me wrong, I want to know for two reasons. My professional curiousity, and my "greedy" player that wants a properly working and balanced profession
Thanks.
Lexy wrote:
Thunderheart wrote:
Why is it going to take more than a year post-launch to make this happen?
It's not.
Cool. So you're saying the Combat balance will be live by June 26 then?
June 27th actually...since the game didn't REALLY launch on the 26th
Thunderheart wrote:
It's not. We've been talking about things internally a lot. I've stressed the importance of these changes and everyone agrees. We've been going over the implementation details for a couple of weeks now so that we can get this back on track. JustG will be going into more detail in his next State of the Game letter which will be coming out in the next couple of days.
Thanks for that...it is a ray oh hope.
Do what you need to, buy them a cake - you have to let them know the Combat Balance is *everything.* Combat helps supply resources, money, equipment demand, the GCW...it is anything and everything.
If you ever hop on a server, you'll notice a slew of Rifleman, it's the current FOTM, I am not advocating a Rifleman nerf -- but right now no other ranged profession really makes sense. Rifleman do damage through armor that can't be healed (unless a CM is willing to take the massed woundage, and there is a CM around who does more than poison)
Cake, pie...whatever it takes! They need to know that this is what the paying player base wants, the Combat Revamp. We understand and respect delays on taking the time to finish it well...but as goes the Combat Revamp, goes the game.
So the reason that the BE guide didn't have any new information was that it would ruin the "non-linear" "feel" of the BE profession to have any real documentation on it. Is that what you're saying here?
Thunderheart wrote:
Based on giving the profession a realistic feel, the profession in the game is not an exact science either.As such, all of the formulas are non-linear. There are random elements designed into the process.
Thunderheart wrote:
I really TRULY do not want to see any profession get nerfed.
Well, in essence, all of the combat professions would be "nerfed" simultaneously, so it shouldnt feel like a nerf, it should feel like a change in gameplay - - which is why the majority of the combat balance has to be done at the same time. Some abilities will increase, others will decrease and all the specials will be useful. To do that, they have to be "balanced" (hence the name).
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Thunderheart wrote:
Architect: What is the exact effect that the effectiveness rating on crafting tools and Crafting stations have on the crafting process and are they working as intended?
The effectiveness rating on crafting tools and stations influences the chance of success or failure during the assembly and experimentation stages. These are working as intended.
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TH,
Naufragus wrote:
Thunderheart wrote:
LadyLeala wrote:
DOES THE QUALITY OF THE ACTUAL CRAFTING STATION MODULE MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE ON THE CRAFTING PROCESS?
Can you please clarify that just a tad? Thanks very much!
Nope. It neither adds nor subtracts from the process.
Architect: What is the exact effect that the effectiveness rating on crafting tools and Crafting stations have on the crafting process and are they working as intended?
The effectiveness rating on crafting tools and stations influences the chance of success or failure during the assembly and experimentation stages. These are working as intended.
Dont your two statements contradict each other Kurt?
I am unsatisfied with your ongoing attempts at communication...I ask Q to get someone up to the task
PS ---YOUR CUTTING AND PASTING FROM A DIFFERENT PROGRAM AND/OR THE USE OF HTML TAGS MAKES IT DIFFICULT TO QUOTE YOU
They don't contradict each other. One is about crafting stations and one is about droids.