Bio Engineer Archive

Sampling: The mind cost for sampling is ridiculous (with an 'i', not an 'e'). It costs me -230 Mind to sample, meaning I can take four, maybe five samples before I have to sit and rest. Further, this decay on death thing is rotten. BEs die a lot, especially since we need to sample high-level DNA to make a decent rancor clone.

Resources: I've been playing since launch, and have yet to even see milk in the game. And mollusks? Nobody I know has ever heard of one. Fishing is pointless given the efficiency (it takes 2-3 minutes to catch a fish for a harvest of anywhere from 2-5 units of meat). At least eggs you can find while running from Point A to Point B. Further, we have a huge number of planet-specific resources, which may or may not exist at the moment, and which may or may not have decent stats at the moment. This makes it difficult to make a quality item.

Storage: A customer came by and asked for a rancor the other day. It took me 10 mins to examine each of my DNA samples to find ones appropriate to crafting a rancor. There's no way to tell, shy of examining each and every one, and cross-referencing against a notebook, what the CL is of a DNA sample. We need to be able to rename or sort samples of a similar DNA or creature type into a stack.

Vendors: Our goods appear under pharmaceuticals under a vendor, and we have no listing on the planetary map. Not very helpful.

Clones: There's little reason for a CH to buy a pet, shy of not wanting to spend the time hunting for a baby rancor on Dathomir. There are only a couple of pets we can provide that can't be found in the wild. We need more (I understand this is coming). We further need to be able to make better versions of anything that can be found in the wild (is this also coming?) CH need a reason to buy from us, rather than hunting for a pet on their own.

1) Cloning Needs a new system, but Ill just take all the Bugged creatures working for now. And the clone tree is a shamble! Who thought up that system?Have the Clones grouped by CL!If you fix the creatures youll have n00b BE's making Blurrgs for 500 credits.

2) Stackable DNA (this is a must as space is so limited in this game and we need to keep so many different types of resources for our stuff)

3) Got Milk? And who the hell sells Stim D's? Theyre a useless item because Fish is so hard to come by. Milk, Fish and EggHarvestors would go a long way to making BE's happy.

4) Sampling has become increasingly harder since the patch. Trying to collect Wild DNA for high level Mobs is just not very worthwhile.

5) Fix the Chef tissues. Youll help 2 professions with just one fix! What a bargain.

Pathis - Master BE

Sorry if this has been mentioned and discussed. But I am coming in on the fly without reading the whole post. Gotta get back to the game.

But, one thing I am noticing now that I can tame and command CL35 is there exists a serious lack of "mid level" CH clones.

I either have lower mid level CL 16-22 and then high level clones. The ones at CL 35 are either bugged or not very useful as combat pets. i.e. they are huge and do not go into the dungeons very well. They are noisy when they walk and just to unweildy in general. Is there more clones in the works that are CL 30-45 that are manageable in size and good for grouping on adventures?

If the fambaa was not bugged, it actually looks like it would be a great solo player pet. But, in a group, the large pets are more of an annoyance to me and other in the group than a help. Please, when looking at adding additional clones, take into consideration size of the full grown pet.

1) cloneing and experimentation on creatures..

2) DNA storage device

3) DNA renaming

4) rare resources (eggs, milk)

5) combining leftover meat/plant resources or allowing odd mixes to be used in schematics

1) Implement new cloning system that's been talked about for 2 months (Holocron's post was Sept 9, didn't see anything earlier than that)

2) DNA storage and labeling

3) Rare ingredients for tissues

4) Lack of variety in the tissue line - more tissues needed

5) BE items in incorrect categories on the Bazaar and vendor

Combine 1 and 2 of the original list. Both cloning and experimentation problems will be solved with the proposed change. That way we can get an answer on one more item, such as DNA storage.

Ok, I'm getting ready to submit this andI've finished tallying up the results. This is how it stands:

1. Cloning - Not much more to say here, a clear top issues.


2. Rare ingredients - Milk, Mollusks and Seafood are near impossible to get. Fish and eggs are still not obtainable in satisfactory quantities. Our best pet stims requires much larger quantities of fish to run in a factory than can normally be obtained.


3. DNA Storage and organtization - Since DNA does not stack, this becomes a real problem for BE's and it probably will become more so when the cloning fixes finally go in. BE's need a way to store more DNA than is possible now. The most common suggestions is a container that hold DNA Samples in a smaller volume. Organization is also a problem, clearer namiing or the ability to rename samples is requested.


4. Broken Experimentation - Success lowering stats and failures increasing stats. Also the final creature combine is bugged so that any line can only be experimented in once.


5. The skill cost to be a BE is too high - This one just barely beat out several other issues. Becoming a BE requires 2 novice professions and one line in each - twice as much as any other crafting proffession. Exploration is almost a requirement of the profession, yet Hunting is the required skill line in the Scout profession. Organic Chemistry is the other requirement and while it allows us to make the medical subcomponents to make pet stims (the only thing wereally need from it), we can't make them as well as a Doctor. Many would like to see these replaced anyway since we gain no experience making these when crafting pet stims.

Good list Tal. My only request is that we drop #4 even though it was mentioned obviously by many others. I re-read most peoples issues and most of them were putting creature experimentation (I know there are a few glitches in the tissue line also). We have already gotten a response on the issue once and with a new cloning system around the corner for 2007, maybe we should hold off this issue until we have a chance to evaluate the new cloning system. I just really dont want the devs to point to a link that says"

"Before I go into the details of changes I?d like to clarify a couple questions you?ve all been asking. Experimentation, does it work? The short answer, yes. The biggest problem with the experimentation is the initial display of percentages during the final creature crafting phase, the percentage shown is obviously incorrect, however the actual numbers shown in the details of the creature are correct. The first time you spend an experimentation point the percentage amount moves to a number that is much more accurate, unfortunately the damage is already there and this is what?s stopping you from being able to use multiple experimentation points on an attribute. All of this will be fixed, but in the mean time just keep in mind that this part of the crafting process has a relatively small effect on final creature, the DNA template is where the big changes happen. Currently it feels like you?re losing a whole lot due to the bug, but in reality there?s not a whole lot there to gain. That being said, if you really do want to push the limits on your creatures stats good organics in the final stage are critical."

Kind of a waste of an issue if we throw it in there. Personally, I'm alot more concerned about how the new death/decay system will effect us with the ability to sample our own going away supposedly in the new cloning system, we are going to be forced out into the field alot more. And when sampling DB'ing creatures....well, you can see how we are going to eat an inordinate of deaths. The time to get a jump on this is now, hopefully before the change goes in. Not a months from now or whenever we get to submit a top 5 to the devs. Of course, if the masses still want experimentation, I'll stay quiet.

Tilen
Scylla

1. Clone line.
-- broken clones
-- can't see pet level on untamed pets.

2. Experimentation
-- inconsistent results. failure = success, success = failure. v

3. DNA
-- takes up too much inventory. Maybe allow varying quantity sampled. (stackable)

4. Extremely rare resources required.
-- got Milk?

5. Sampling DNA.
-- ham costs too high.

1. Poor economic model - Most of our goods are only used by 10% of the server population. (CH, Tailor and Chef) In addition to having a limited market, all of the goods we make for this limited market are "optional" only.(CHs can find their own pets and use doctor stims, Tailor and Chef tissues of limited value and not required components.) We're the only crafting profession that can't easily use our own products. We can use our CL<15 pets and use our stims on them, but that's about it.

2. Clone line - Undesirable products. (Broken clones. Little variety. Experimentation broken.)

3. Tissues - Rarity of resources. Very limited end market (except for the pet supplies).

4. Difficulty in getting reources in general. Getting meat in bulk is a pain. Gathering good DNA takes a ton of time and is high risk (and will be expensive too after this patch.) No other crafters are at such a disadvantage in getting resources.

5. Interdependance - It is very hard for this profession to stand on its own. We are almost forced by the design to be our own end user (Pick up CH, Tailor or Chef), to pick up survival skills to gather DNA/meats (Scout/Ranger & weapon skills). Or pick up Artisan skills for shopkeeping and flora gathering. A master BE with no other professions would be crippled, while a masters of almost every other profession can function with no additional training.

6. No way to get a Holocron - Just adding this because it's my current pet peeve.

Benechi

1 - Cloning and clone expirimentation.
2 - Extremely rare resources.
3 - Pet stims (a staple item) requiring 3 or more components from another elite profession.
4 - Uselessness of Chef tissues.
5 - Crafting profession with the most skill points required, yet less "perks" than even basic Artisan.

Top Five Issues

1. Extreme scarcity of crafting components (mollusk, milk, and fish); I believe we are the only profession that cannot intentionally seek out a mandatory resource for our crafted items/we're the only profession that must rely on the luck of loot drops to make our wares.

2. Bio-Engineering changes don't seem to be scheduled at the same time of chef changes, CH changes and mount introductions. There is going to be a bio-engineering apocalypse when the new level limit of non-CH pets hits and we still don't have control over our clones' CLs. This is going to be compounded by the fact that there will be extremely limited demand for our cloned mounts (related reason). If we have been lucky enough to craft some tranquilizer tissues, my sense is that they will end up modifying a skill that is being removed during the CH update. WATCH FOR INTER-RELATIONSHIPS WHEN ONE PROFESSION IS DEPENDENT ON ANOTHER!

3. Experience Point Problems: Crafting pet stimpaks needs to grant BE xp. Crafting a clone should grant xp commensurate with the time, effort, and DANGER that goes with gathering DNA. Ensure that uxp is working properly for all of our craftables (clones and tissues).

4. Cloning is quickly becoming a joke. BEs should either be able to create the most DIVERSE set of creatures in the game or they should be able to create the most POWERFUL set of creatures in the game. For the amount of skill point cost for the profession, my suggestion would be the latter: a CL 25 BE creature should be equivalent to a CL 27-30 creature in the wild. The ability to up the desirability of a BE creature should come in the 4th cloning box and/or master BE to prevent dabbling (which is what's going to happen with mounts and kaadus). Fix the cloning bugs (we all know what they are).

5. Too few professions are interDEPENDENT with bio-engineers. Make the career more valuable without nerfing existing classes too far. Stimpaks designed for sentients should have half effectiveness on creatures, and vice versa. A BE should be able to "slice" a CH's creature like a smuggler can do with a pistoleer's DX2. The DX2 doesn't become more difficult to use in the process. Due to their extensive knowledge of xenomorphology, BEs should have bonuses or unique skills related to creatures (maybe related to pacification/tranquilizing, or versions of other classes abilities that work only on creatures--a creature eyeshot, for example, that has no effect on players). This would make BEs more valuable in hunting parties. We are truly a hybrid profession that requires a diverse set of synergies. Right now, we grind.

Thanks for listening!

Bio-Engineering changes don't seem to be scheduled at the same time of chef changes, CH changes and mount introductions.

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Fyi, the CH changes are not going in this patch as far as I've seen, nor has TH said anything other than he'll let the CH's know when they are ready to go in.