Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: Getting to know you and your profession!
Seiryuu wrote:
The most pressing issue is that Creature Handler was "balanced" due to the Creature Balance, yet the rest of the balance never occurred.
Nothing has been done to compensate handlers in the 11 months since that happened and it will be at least half a year before the Combat Update does get pushed through. It has killed the profession and driven myself and many long-time handlers to quit in disappointment. Moral around here is abysmal because of all these things.
This is the number one issue. Bar none. We got combat rebalanced, no one else did.
Just like any profession, I am certain you will hear a wide range of issues from the Creature Handlers here. It's a lively bunch of people with lots of passion.
Like most professions, Creature Handlers have an issues list documented by our Correspondent. If I had to pick one though as you asked as the most pressing issues, I guess I'd have to answer with something not on that list and not a specific Creature Handler issue per se -- communication.
Many of the issues you will likely hear about are rooted in history, perceptions, and expectations (and none very pleasant). Improved communication would help with many of these issues. While I think most players would *like* to see their pet peeves addressed overnight, most people understand priorities, finite resources, unforseen complications during development (aka delays), etc.
What we have been seeing is a lack of communication and the communication that does come out creates perceptions (such as "the Devs hate us!") and expectations (such as when things like the "combat rebalance" documents are to be released to the community).
The SWG community as a whole needs a liaison that isn't in back to back meetings all day, all week and is more visible on the forums. Even if the Devs cannot communicate with the community directly (and deal with all the followup that is inevitably needed), the Devs should be providing information to the Correspondents that can communicate information regularly to the community. Currently, there appears to be some truth to the perception that feedback is only one way as so many things appear to go unanswered for so long (despite the feeling that the Correspondents are regularly giving feedback *to* the Devs).
Welcome to the CH forum and be careful not to step in any messes. You'd think Creature Handlers would be more adept at using pooper scoopers!
- Our rare tameables. I have been looking for a Bull Rancor (baby) since Dec. 2003. I am well over 700 lairs destroyed, and I have yet to find one. A bit to rare if you ask me, it's ridiculous. I am not the only one displeased with the rarity of some of our tameables. There is no reason for ANYTHING to be that rare, seeing as how Jedi were supposed to be the most rare thing in this game,this situation is not acceptable to me.
- Not a wide enough variety in tameables, our promised "Non-tameables CL 50 and under would be exception not the rule," was never followed through on.
- Not enough pet storage space in the datapad.
- No Creature Handler specific content.
- No Creature Handler specific role.
- Creature Handlers are UNABLE to be a standalone combat profession.
Those are my main issues, but please refer to the MANY stickied posts we have in the forum, and please let SOME developer other than Thunderheart know about them. Thank you...
Greetings, Tiggs! Thank you for dropping by our forum. Though sometimes heated, this is the home to some of the most passionate players in the game. We –care- about our profession, and that sometimes leads us to being a little more angry at slights and the silence we have endured since December. I’m not the most vocal here, by far, but I’d like to think my experience as a Master CH for over a year have given me valuable insight into the profession’s problems.
I think the one thing that ALL of us have been looking for in these past 10 months can be summed up in one word:
PURPOSE
* What is the purpose of the CH profession? Elite combat or support? We take more SP than many elites, yet have less benefits and do much less damage, yet as a support profession we are poor. Which leads to…
* What is the purpose of having creatures be tanks if players are so much better at it?
* What is our purpose in PvP, since our main weapon is taken out in SECONDS?
* What is the purpose in taming rares, or anything in the wild for that matter, if B.E.s can make so much better creatures?
* What is the purpose of mounts since everyone rides vehicles to get everywhere faster?
Those of us who are here love the profession for its FUN factor. Many of us are collectors: we have to have the best, the rarest, the coolest. It’s about image, or a style of play, not power. Almost none of us come here to be an “uber” combat template. Why? The reasons date back to December…
In December, in preparation for the combat rebalance (which we later learned was never even planned), all creatures were “adjusted” - making them, in general, weaker than before. As such, this bascially nerfed our main weapons. This, combined with the elite composite armor that was being made and the discovery of the “god mode” that buffs give, have let to an overwhelming shift in balance to the playerbase in PvE, a balance that will not be easily corrected as players have been used to “god mode” for 10 months now – the uproar will be enormous when this is fixed from the rest of the userbase.
At the same time, the entire profession was “adjusted” to eliminate people using one of the most powerful creatures in the game (at that time) with minimal CH skill (3/2/0/0 to control a graul mauler). Combine all this with a general reduction in experience gain and the halving of experience with 2 pets out (we once got xp for each pet, i.e. double xp, now we get ½ xp for each), and you now have the profession you see today. A gimped profession that takes a long time to master but has almost no benefit for doing so.
So we sit here today, our numbers abysmally low and dropping daily and our morale in the dumps, and wonder why we are here. We have been “adjusted” for this mythical combat rebalance for over TEN MONTHS, with no apology, no correction, nothing thrown our way to say “whoops, we made a mistake, here’s something to make you more viable.” Certain red names have posted in here inflammatory comments and have led us to believe that they do not want us here, that they wish the CH profession did not exist. But we remain, and will continue to be vocal until the day we leave. The trust is broken, and needs to be repaired with communication.
My one issue then? MAKE US A VIABLE PROFESSION. Both economically and in combat. How can this be achieved? There are many ways suggested on this forum. My main ideas would be:
1. Reduce damage done TO a pet in PvP by 75%. Currently, pets’ damage is reduced 75% yet damage taken by a pet from a player or other player pet is 100%. This is a SERIOUS imbalance.
2. Let us tame EVERYTHING under CL 70. We were once told that untamable creatures under CL 70 would be the exception. We have proved over and over this is NOT the case, and almost half the creatures in the game under this level are NOT tamable. What harm is there is a pharple is tamable? Or a gurk tracker? Or a surefoot brackaset? Or a massive gnort? It’s all about variety and personal choice. We’d like to have the variety to choose from.
3. Make there be a reason to have a mount. Better terrain negotiation, combat specials while mounted, mount combat while being ridden, etc. Then we can sell them again. The only people who have them use them as backups for vehicles or for RP play.
4. The corral. See forum thread about this. Storage is a BIG issue for us.
These are all just examples. There are MANY great ideas here. Please take use the insight and comments we give you, listen to the emotion we are putting behind them, and help us make this a better forum, profession, and relationship between Developers and Players.
Thank you again for your time.
Due to a combination of dire Heavy Weapon accuracy, speed, Armour Piercing, lack of usable (disposables are costly to use regularly) damage types, and general lack of versatility, Commandos get outdamaged in all game areas other than low-end PVE, by pretty much every other class.
Excel sheets?
Bynder wrote:
Seiryuu wrote:
The most pressing issue is that Creature Handler was "balanced" due to the Creature Balance, yet the rest of the balance never occurred.
Nothing has been done to compensate handlers in the 11 months since that happened and it will be at least half a year before the Combat Update does get pushed through. It has killed the profession and driven myself and many long-time handlers to quit in disappointment. Moral around here is abysmal because of all these things.
I have no need to add anything. Seiryuu nailed it in one.
Amen.
Message Edited by Nerj on 10-11-2004 10:16 PM
.Just read through what all my Commando brother's have posted and for the most part agree. One thing that I have a problem with is kind of complicated and really anything that I would like to be fixed is bigger then just a fix, it's a revamp and most likly "your issues will be address in the Combat Ramp" type of issues. The Flame Thrower ( I love it......it's my Boom Stick) but, it's the only weapon I really ever use, thus it becomes less exciting. The HAR, cool looking but I couldn't even use it to clean my plugged up toilet because of the HAM costs it has. Commando's are supposed to be the heavy hitters of the game it has been said. A 92pt profession schools us and out damages us hands down (Rifleman). Now to what I would like to see.