Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: BE info from the interveiw
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loomis001
Wed Oct 29, 2003 6:12 pm
#1
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Kegyen:
The Star Wars Galaxies Dev Team has been by far the best out of any MMORPG I have played at communicating with it's fan base giving straight, honest answers to questions. That being said, the fundamental problem of the community outnumbering the Dev team by such a vast margin creates frustration there will always be people that feel they are not heard unless a Dev responds to them. I know Moderators forward good posts to the Dev team to assist, but there is never time to answer even those. Is there any chance at some point in the future of an automated system where a Dev or moderator reading a post could click an icon that would forward an auto reply to the poster's email address? Do you think such a system would lower frustration?
Kevin (Q-3P0) O’Hara:
- An interesting idea, I'm not sure how well received canned answers would be. The community will be getting a lot of real time feedback and attention from Thunderheart, our new(ish) Assistant Community Relations Manager.
Kegyen:
Devs work long hours and late nights. Anyone reading Dev responses at midnight knows this. What's the secret food or beverage keeps a Dev going?
Kevin (Q-3P0) O’Hara-
My preferred poison is good old Jolt Cola, but that certainly isn't the staple of the team. Actually, I think love for the game keeps us going longer than any food.
Kegyen:
Ronda, you are barraged on a daily basis by emails from people wanting things. What we want to know is how do you hold up? What does one do to unwind from a day of non-stop requests?
Ronda Scott:
Heh. It’s not really that bad! I actually get a lot out of interacting with the folks running all the community sites – for all LucasArts titles, not just SWG. It’s very gratifying to work directly with people who actually play our games.
But to unwind from the rigors of sitting in a cube all day, I play my GBA a lot. Some might say it’s an addiction. They’re nuts.
Kegyen:
Ronda there are rumors that you are going to star in Episode III as Padme's Father's uncle's cousin's former roommate. Is this true?
Ronda Scott:
Absolutely false. The cousin and I stay roommates the entire film, though her Wookiee friends really do stop by to party a little too often. You’ll get witness the tension and drama that unfolds when a Twi’lek, Zabrak and Wookiees stop being polite and start getting real. Or something.
Kegyen:
Ronda, to give our readers an idea of what you go through, how many emails do you have to read a day on average?
Ronda Scott:
Lots. It’s hard to say how many are specifically related to Galaxies, but I do get a whole lot of email. But I don’t mind that as much as I mind meetings. And boy do we have meetings… =)
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Kegyen:
Kevin, my alter ego Jediblues will be launching a Parody Theatre on this web site. Any requests for the opener?
Kevin (Q-3P0) O’Hara:
So many to choose from. Where can I get my copy of Jediblues Greatest Hits? I've been waiting for it since beta.
Kegyen:
I will send a copy off to you. I've heard people claim the high end of this game is PVP. While I would answer that depends on the person, what do you say to people that aren't into the crafting/merchant part of the game or PVP or role-playing and want more varied high end PVE content, missions and places of interest?
Kevin (Q-3P0) O’Hara:
PVP is one of many avenues to go in SWG, but it’s definitely not the only high end game. Everyone has his or her favorite play styles. It's my hope that most players will try all of the different things. Sure, you may be a crafter 90% of the time because you enjoy it, but I hope you also jump into a PVE battlefield someday to let off some steam. As for higher end content, we've got content designers who are continually working on adding more content to the monthly publishes. We're making existing content more accessible and compelling. As with all MMOs, the game will evolve towards the advanced player base.
Certain classes will always feel like they are not being heard. A friend of mine that is a Master Doctor states he has not seen any responses to their Correspondent's list of issues. Does the Dev team do a pass on each class one at a time, or are different teams working on the different professions? If it is one at a time, what determines priority?
Kevin (Q-3P0) O’Hara:
We have six designers who are responsible for between 1 to 8 professions each. All of them have other tasks as well, so it starts with them reviewing all the issues on the Correspondents forum and getting more info from the correspondents as needed. Some things are simple fixes that we can try to schedule in for the next publish. Other things are more complex and we can hit a few of those per publish.
With all of development you have to prioritize things. A gating bug that is affecting 65% of our players will get attention before an annoying system that affects 5%. Now that Thunderheart is here, you’ll get timely communication as to what we are doing, what we intend to do and what we won't be doing (or at least not at this time).
Kegyen
Haden, the European launch is coming. Where else in the world is Star Wars Galaxies going in the future?
Haden Blackman:
Eventually, we'd like to roll it out all over the world. But, we'll do so in an organized fashion, one step at a time.
Kegyen:
How did you balance the business end of launching a game to start generating a profit as soon as possible with the Development end of making it as complete as possible?
Haden Blackman:
We took great care to develop a core set of systems that we knew would be compelling and upon which we could build by adding new content and features. No game is ever going to be all things to all people, and we realized that early on. Instead, we tried to put together an engaging core feature set that we could easily grow over time. With that said, we did take considerable time to develop the product, in line with the development cycles for other competitive MMORPGs.
Kegyen:
J' Allen, you yelled at Chris Roberts and did not get fired. Rumor has it Mr. Roberts is secretly planning revenge from a secluded cave in the desert? Can you confirm this?
J. Allen Brack:
Confirmed. My spies are always on the lookout for Mr. Roberts and his gang of zombie ninja assassins, so I hope to have good notice when he makes his move. If you see one, let me know!
Kegyen:
I've always thought that a recently launched MMORPG's is like an infant when launched. Healthy and kicking if all went well, but it's true potential is yet to come. Star Wars Galaxies is a great game already, with so much more to come. Where do you envision this game going?
J. Allen Brack:
Excellent question. One of the most disappointing aspects of single player game development is that if a feature doesn't make the first release, it's never going to make it in. This game is considerably different. The development team has tons of ideas and players constantly send in new ideas to make the game better.
We've got a lot planed for the future. Player cities and mounts are currently on Testcenter, with vehicles coming out shortly after that. We are watching the numbers for Jedi and expect to see our first one any day now. We've made changes to both the Combat Medics and Bio-engineers, which should be coming out shortly. We are putting a plan together to add combat droids to the Droid Engineer profession.
Kegyen:
I'd like to thank all the Devs for taking the time for this interview, and especially Ronda for making some time to help us out.
Kegyen:
The Star Wars Galaxies Dev Team has been by far the best out of any MMORPG I have played at communicating with it's fan base giving straight, honest answers to questions. That being said, the fundamental problem of the community outnumbering the Dev team by such a vast margin creates frustration there will always be people that feel they are not heard unless a Dev responds to them. I know Moderators forward good posts to the Dev team to assist, but there is never time to answer even those. Is there any chance at some point in the future of an automated system where a Dev or moderator reading a post could click an icon that would forward an auto reply to the poster's email address? Do you think such a system would lower frustration?
Kevin (Q-3P0) O’Hara:
- An interesting idea, I'm not sure how well received canned answers would be. The community will be getting a lot of real time feedback and attention from Thunderheart, our new(ish) Assistant Community Relations Manager.
Kegyen:
Devs work long hours and late nights. Anyone reading Dev responses at midnight knows this. What's the secret food or beverage keeps a Dev going?
Kevin (Q-3P0) O’Hara-
My preferred poison is good old Jolt Cola, but that certainly isn't the staple of the team. Actually, I think love for the game keeps us going longer than any food.
Kegyen:
Ronda, you are barraged on a daily basis by emails from people wanting things. What we want to know is how do you hold up? What does one do to unwind from a day of non-stop requests?
Ronda Scott:
Heh. It’s not really that bad! I actually get a lot out of interacting with the folks running all the community sites – for all LucasArts titles, not just SWG. It’s very gratifying to work directly with people who actually play our games.
But to unwind from the rigors of sitting in a cube all day, I play my GBA a lot. Some might say it’s an addiction. They’re nuts.
Kegyen:
Ronda there are rumors that you are going to star in Episode III as Padme's Father's uncle's cousin's former roommate. Is this true?
Ronda Scott:
Absolutely false. The cousin and I stay roommates the entire film, though her Wookiee friends really do stop by to party a little too often. You’ll get witness the tension and drama that unfolds when a Twi’lek, Zabrak and Wookiees stop being polite and start getting real. Or something.
Kegyen:
Ronda, to give our readers an idea of what you go through, how many emails do you have to read a day on average?
Ronda Scott:
Lots. It’s hard to say how many are specifically related to Galaxies, but I do get a whole lot of email. But I don’t mind that as much as I mind meetings. And boy do we have meetings… =)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
page 2
Kegyen:
Kevin, my alter ego Jediblues will be launching a Parody Theatre on this web site. Any requests for the opener?
Kevin (Q-3P0) O’Hara:
So many to choose from. Where can I get my copy of Jediblues Greatest Hits? I've been waiting for it since beta.
Kegyen:
I will send a copy off to you. I've heard people claim the high end of this game is PVP. While I would answer that depends on the person, what do you say to people that aren't into the crafting/merchant part of the game or PVP or role-playing and want more varied high end PVE content, missions and places of interest?
Kevin (Q-3P0) O’Hara:
PVP is one of many avenues to go in SWG, but it’s definitely not the only high end game. Everyone has his or her favorite play styles. It's my hope that most players will try all of the different things. Sure, you may be a crafter 90% of the time because you enjoy it, but I hope you also jump into a PVE battlefield someday to let off some steam. As for higher end content, we've got content designers who are continually working on adding more content to the monthly publishes. We're making existing content more accessible and compelling. As with all MMOs, the game will evolve towards the advanced player base.
Certain classes will always feel like they are not being heard. A friend of mine that is a Master Doctor states he has not seen any responses to their Correspondent's list of issues. Does the Dev team do a pass on each class one at a time, or are different teams working on the different professions? If it is one at a time, what determines priority?
Kevin (Q-3P0) O’Hara:
We have six designers who are responsible for between 1 to 8 professions each. All of them have other tasks as well, so it starts with them reviewing all the issues on the Correspondents forum and getting more info from the correspondents as needed. Some things are simple fixes that we can try to schedule in for the next publish. Other things are more complex and we can hit a few of those per publish.
With all of development you have to prioritize things. A gating bug that is affecting 65% of our players will get attention before an annoying system that affects 5%. Now that Thunderheart is here, you’ll get timely communication as to what we are doing, what we intend to do and what we won't be doing (or at least not at this time).
Kegyen
Haden, the European launch is coming. Where else in the world is Star Wars Galaxies going in the future?
Haden Blackman:
Eventually, we'd like to roll it out all over the world. But, we'll do so in an organized fashion, one step at a time.
Kegyen:
How did you balance the business end of launching a game to start generating a profit as soon as possible with the Development end of making it as complete as possible?
Haden Blackman:
We took great care to develop a core set of systems that we knew would be compelling and upon which we could build by adding new content and features. No game is ever going to be all things to all people, and we realized that early on. Instead, we tried to put together an engaging core feature set that we could easily grow over time. With that said, we did take considerable time to develop the product, in line with the development cycles for other competitive MMORPGs.
Kegyen:
J' Allen, you yelled at Chris Roberts and did not get fired. Rumor has it Mr. Roberts is secretly planning revenge from a secluded cave in the desert? Can you confirm this?
J. Allen Brack:
Confirmed. My spies are always on the lookout for Mr. Roberts and his gang of zombie ninja assassins, so I hope to have good notice when he makes his move. If you see one, let me know!
Kegyen:
I've always thought that a recently launched MMORPG's is like an infant when launched. Healthy and kicking if all went well, but it's true potential is yet to come. Star Wars Galaxies is a great game already, with so much more to come. Where do you envision this game going?
J. Allen Brack:
Excellent question. One of the most disappointing aspects of single player game development is that if a feature doesn't make the first release, it's never going to make it in. This game is considerably different. The development team has tons of ideas and players constantly send in new ideas to make the game better.
We've got a lot planed for the future. Player cities and mounts are currently on Testcenter, with vehicles coming out shortly after that. We are watching the numbers for Jedi and expect to see our first one any day now. We've made changes to both the Combat Medics and Bio-engineers, which should be coming out shortly. We are putting a plan together to add combat droids to the Droid Engineer profession.
Kegyen:
I'd like to thank all the Devs for taking the time for this interview, and especially Ronda for making some time to help us out.
loomis001
Wed Oct 29, 2003 6:13 pm
#2
quote*
We've made changes to both the Combat Medics and Bio-engineers, which should be coming out shortly.
Am i missing somthing where are the changes?
We've made changes to both the Combat Medics and Bio-engineers, which should be coming out shortly.
Am i missing somthing where are the changes?
Yosho_Tarien
Wed Oct 29, 2003 6:23 pm
#3
The most recent TH posts seem to indicate that we will get our fixes by the time mounts go live. But still no definite word from our dev. (He could drop a note to one of the other correspondents to deliver to us, hint, hint. ) I hate to see what will happen to this board if it doesn't make it.
Tigasnake
Wed Oct 29, 2003 7:24 pm
#5
Several Candidates have been applying to become Correspondents of this profession, quoted from Thunderheart to me in email. It won't be long until we have a new, fresh representative for this PATIENT community. Whoever he chooses will most likely deserve to be one and will probably do hard work just to catch up of every possible relevent issue.
loomis001
Wed Oct 29, 2003 8:03 pm
#6
i am more worried about our supposed be clone upgrade to tell the truth
Tal-N
Wed Oct 29, 2003 9:49 pm
#7
Yeah im thinking that it's been developed totally in secret without any input from the actual players. Odds are with the current complaints about people being 'forced' to take maskscent skills and ranger skills then IF the dna is what determines the special attacks and such then a ranger really does have a huge advantage since they can not only see what animals have what attacks but they can very easily sample from the full range of animals without any problems. Saddly though since only high level mobs have AoE meleeattacks you'll not ever find these for pets now.
S0F
Thu Oct 30, 2003 2:02 am
#8
note: i didnt mean ive been waiting for an excuse to jack up my prices, i simply meant that the job will be a longer and more involved one, which calls for higher pay and that i enjoy the job and have been wishing there were more to it. 
S0F
Thu Oct 30, 2003 1:59 pm
#9
i hopespecials have to do with DNA.
although a ranger may have an advantage in being able to see the specials on any creature just by looking at it, i can just as easily alt-tab and look it up.
i would love a new purpose in BE life - hunting down the exact DNA i want. not only will this make creating the perfect BE pet for a customer more fun, it will make the mission to gather the right DNA much longer andi will be able to justafiably charge more for something i enjoy doing. fantastic!
considering the alternatives, dna is the best bet anyhow. can you immagine if special attacks and armor depended on flora or meat? holy god what a totally thanklesspain that would be.
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