Bio Engineer Archive

I hate to be the cynic in the group at this point, but every developer claims to hate the AFKing. For over a year now, they've all pretty much said that, but nothing has been done. I like her attitude, but I'd really like to hear something more definitive than "after JTL" before we pull out the floats and throw a parade. Considering how many things have been promised for "After JTL", we may be looking at another year.

I'm not looking for a hard deadline. I just want to know this isn't in the queue after the combat rebalance, the civil war revival, the smuggler revamp, etc. We got a lot of people hanging on here to a faint shred of hope that we may see some relief sometime in the near term (as in, before the end of the year). If "after JTL" means it's in some sort of long queue and de-prioritized, I think they owe us that answer so the folks here can make some informed decisions.

Don't worry Javier, I know of people that would make you sound downright optimistic in comparison.

Change is coming. I am certain of it. It just takes time. I'm not certain of the priority, but the impression I am getting is that it is decently high on the grand list of things to change. Unfortunately, the players make sure that we will not generally see much more than a general idea of when. Any hint of a schedule gets interpreted by the players as a promise, and when the schedule isn't met, it's a broken promise, even if the schedule was labelled as best case ultra optimistic guess. The only way not to "break promises" is to not give any schedule or list of priorities unless something is fairly set in stone.

For th record, as recently as February, we were flat out told that nothing would be done. So it hasn't been a year of being told that things would change. That is a more recent development.

Message Edited by Tiaga on 10-12-2004 03:23 PM

No, I meant that the devs have always stated that they dislike unattended play. In fact I don't think it was until this past august when they said they'd do anything about it.

I'm not sure what they can tell me that would put me at ease if they can't give me a general idea of when the change will go through. I'm at a loss there, but the truth is, I'm pretty sure it's been dropped in priority below a lot of other stuff. Once again I'm feeling a bit betrayed. I feel like they're just saying the things we want to hear, but relief isn't actually in sight.

I guess what I'm trying to say is they need to stop promising and start doing. I have no faith left.

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picklesSW wrote:
No, I meant that the devs have always stated that they dislike unattended play. In fact I don't think it was until this past august when they said they'd do anything about it.

I'm not sure what they can tell me that would put me at ease if they can't give me a general idea of when the change will go through. I'm at a loss there, but the truth is, I'm pretty sure it's been dropped in priority below a lot of other stuff. Once again I'm feeling a bit betrayed. I feel like they're just saying the things we want to hear, but relief isn't actually in sight.

I guess what I'm trying to say is they need to stop promising and start doing. I have no faith left.

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/agree

If it's left in limbo for much longer I don't think I can really talk myself into keep paying them my money.

Tiggs,

At the risk of sounding ranty and being flamed, I must follow up my original post this thread.

Here is what I NEED:

I need to know the Devs want the Combat Revamp as much as I do. I need proof and progress. I am a skeptic about everythig in life. How about releasing the documents to the Sandbox Boards? Or better yet make a Sandbox Board? Word of mouth will spill out amongst people we all trust that this is happening.

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Lorechaser wrote:

I'll chime in with another vote for Niche.

A post earlier in the series summed it up very nicely - there is nothing unique that a CH can do.

We aren't a combat profession, as we get no combat skills, and our main weapons are more support than anything else. We have no certs, no specials, no bonuses. And if we put the full points in being a MCH, we can't build any competitive melee or ranged templates. MCH/MWhatever is the best we can do. CH is the only elite profession I know of that seems to be a combat prof, but adds nothing to your skills. Heck, even Smugglers get low blow and last ditch....

We aren't a support profession, as you can buy a droid that outfights a pet, you can buy a bike that outperforms a mount, and you can go to a BE if you really want a creature pet. When I, as a CH, begin thinking "Hmmm, maybe I'll just go find a BE and get them to make me something, rather than hunt and train a rancor...." it's a problem.

We really don't serve a purpose, other than being horribly COOL. I ride a dewback around whenever I can, because doing so is cool. It's fun. It makes me happy. But there's no reason to do it. I use pets in battle because I like the way it looks, but I'd be much better off putting my points in to a combat prof, and just ignoring that.

To make CH a prof that people play because it's useful, rather than just because it's a cool visual (which will almost always wear off), build on this. Find a way to turn the uniqueness of the CH into a unique benefit. Commands that don't work unless you're a CH. Pet buffs. Bonuses to pets you control. Speed boosts on mounts when ridden by CH's. Things like that - something that truly makes us elite when it comes to creatures.

Personally, I'd combine the 4 branches in to 3, and give a 4th combat branch. Perhaps a pet berserk, and a few things like that in that branch. Pretty much on par with Smuggler.

Oh - and let us drop our pets in a house.

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This is exactly the way I feel too. Well spoken m8.

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picklesSW wrote:
I guess what I'm trying to say is they need to stop promising and start doing. I have no faith left.

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But what has been promised? You agreed that until recently they didn't say they were going to do something about it. It had been quite the opposite, they said they would not do anything about it. There was no promise given there. The recent announcements they said they would do something. But to put that in perspective, they announced they would do something about the path to jedi in January. They started actually doing something about it in June. And they weren't in the middle of trying to get a new product released at the time. That was 6 months. It's been since August that the change in position on unattended play was announced. That's less than 3 months.

"It's been since August that the change in position on unattended play was announced. That's less than 3 months."

Right. If it's going to be another 9 months, fine, but I for one would like to know where it sits in the priority queue. If it's near the bottom, that tells me what I need to know.

"Uh, I'd be happy with a CSR policy and a Dev statement saying that Botting in a Public Cantina is a bannable offense... and then really doing it."

And this is an excellent point. They don't need to do a damn thing but stand up to the community and say "anyone found AFKing or running a buffbot will be warned and then banned if reported." Little bit of CSR time, no dev time needed. But I'm not holding my breath for that either.

There's new games coming out. I'm underwhelmed by what I've heard about JTL. I need a shred of hope. Their promise to fix unattended gameplay was a shining ray of hope, but I've not heard a thing in a while now which leads me to believe it's not at all being worked on. I'm hoping someone can give me that hope back, but it has to be something a bit more concrete than "after JTL" which could mean another year or more of a broken profession.

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Tiggs wrote:

We (the team) are all concerned about this issue and we will have this fixed.

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There's nothing broken. Devote developer resources to the real problems.