Bio Engineer Archive

Well it might not be progressing as things go, however it does not look like a system which he has been working on for 2 months. These are very fundamental bugs as I can see which no doubt can be resolved reasonabley fast but it does make me wonder just how long our glorious designer has actually been working on the system in reality.

Last time we brought up replacing him might have been a good time to do it, no? Now that we see that he has actually put pen to paper, we might as well stick with him. But if he comes back here saying, "Look what I did for you!", then he's sorely mistaken if he expects any gratitude. This profession would have been completed more quickly if he'd been canned 6 months ago.

I don't think so. Though things aren't working quite as they should, what I'm seeing is too subtle to have been simply slapped together.

I think most everything done after launch in any MMO is made up as they go along (and to a large extent, before launch). They don't know how it is going to work before they try it. They may have some kind of a plan, but it will be a plan with very fuzzy edges. And no plan (i.e. code) survives contact with the enemy (i.e. players).

Yes, he is making it up as he goes along. While I don't think that is the only way it could be done, it is the way that it seems to always be done.

I don't think the changes in DNA I see one your site are subtle. Thats a removal of 3 lines of DB code and the addition of 8 new ones.

The impression I get is that the new creature's art and names, with the beginings of a DNA pass, were thrown up on the tools in the 1st TC patch, without the accompaning schematics. Something that seems pretty quick and easy for the dev team to do (all DB references easily added, no actual system change). Then with the 2nd TC patch,part ofsystem, written 2 days before, was added, sans any experimentation code. I suspect we will see experimentation added with the next TC patch. The weird HAM will probably still be there after the next patch, the system isn't finished, so debugging hasn't begun. Once the system is complete we will start to see tweaks and fixes, but we aren't there yet.

Ihope the 1st 3 lines removed from the DNA returns, that seems like a fundamental item we need to know. I think it will, really i don't think it was removed on purpose, just a bug that happened with the addition of the other 8 lines. With that in mind, one starts to see a linear progression in the cloning system, just as if it is being written as we speak.

I don't think this is slapped together, I believe he has had an outline of how the system would work for some time. I just think he's writing the actual code now.

I don't think the changes in DNA I see one your site are subtle. Thats a removal of 3 lines of DB code and the addition of 8 new ones.

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Considering niether the 3 lines nor the 8 lines were showing up on any sample before last night, this would appear to be more of a display problem. The 3 lines are definitely stored in the sample somewhere, otherwise none of the clones I made would have gotten the special attacks from the creatures I sampled. Experimantation does work, but after only a few short hours, there simply hasn't been time to figure out how it works as relates to cl, resists and specials.

I just looked at Talthazar's webpage, the changes I see there between yesterdays DNA and todays, are not tweeks or fixesto an already made system, they are a new system. Traigus seems to have been right, the system was not completely on TC, because it hadn't been written yet. It also seems that it is stillnot done yet. Of course this is conjecture, but the evidence does point to this conclusion.

At least we are moving ahead, finally.

There is a bug or 2 in there someplace.
The system seems all in now (with last nights patch).

The system is very subtle.. between the slots beign weighted on different features (but all counting for all features), and the actual DNA you use (and its stats).

BE looks to more "mad scientisty" of an art form... then a science.

Feel for stat ranges, and knowing what to choose for each slot to get what you want will require skill for the best results.

DNA seems to "meld" together instead of the direct +/- of the rest of the craft systems. This is mostly, becasue it is a craft system that uses 5 materials (DNA) with a huge number of variables per material.

most crafting has 3 materials + subcompnents (which are just direct + to a value)...

This is much more like the crafting I wanted in SWG in the first place. Huge amounts of variablility in materials to make the item with features you want. Instead of locked in features (like WS gets stuck w/ rare metals that always have bad stats, and the gun wil always do cold damage).

-T

Btw, when i said the system seems subtle, I'm not talking about dna display, of course there's nothing there to do with sublety -you hit sample and get some dna with properties based on the creature. It's pretty straight-forawrd. I'm talking about how the dna is put together to pull the resists and specials from the dna to apply to the final clone. There do seem to be some variations but again, we haven't had enough time with this system yet to figure them out.