CUEmu - Thread Posts

alizarinohm

Thu Jun 26, 2003 2:58 pm

Former beta tester here. Doesn't that "former" part sound great! This is the day we have been waiting for and before I provide some feedback I want to thank the entire development team for all the work. On top of that, I have found the SWG team to be the most professional and responsible group of people I have had the pleasure of interacting with.

Now, on to Food Crafting.

At the bottom is my research of all the food crafting up to Domestic III. The experience values may not be acurate because they were from early June. Food crafting as it stands has the POTENTIAL to be really great and I don't think it is that far off. However, at this time, there are still a couple of outstanding issues as well as some needed balance adjustments.

The thing about food crafting that is great is that they are consumables which is very good for the economy. They are also stat bufs which makes them desirable. The question is, which stats should they buf, by how much, for how long, and for how often. Towards the end of beta I focused on crafting consumables. The consumables I crafted were weapon powerup, but the experience provided me insights into how to make food desirable. This leads to my first set of suggestions:

DO NOT buf any of the ham stats. People bought powerups because with 100 charges, the affect lasted 3-6 battles. When you buf the ham stats, the positive affect is essentially only good for one hit in a battle.

DO BUF the other stats. By buffing the other stats, players will recieve the benefit over a longer period of time. This will make the buf more beneficial, and hence worth more to the player.

Lower the buf, increase the duration. I don't think people every really "got" food in beta. I sure didn't. After I made the powerups, however, it really hit me. I think the bufs that alter the non-ham stats are overpowered. If I quench my thirst with caf (say 6 drinks), I can buf my quickness and focus by 150. Think about how much that will reduce special action and mind costs. I recommend cutting the bufs by half, but increasing the duration by about 20-30%. The idea is that a single food item should last at least as long as an average battle (5 minutes?). It should not last as long as a powerup (3-6 battles) because I think when it comes down to it, food (when an entire stack is consumed at once) is far more powerful.

Increase how quick a player gets full, decrease the length of time a player is full. I think right now, you eat 8-10 items and drink the same number of items. If you implement suggestion (1) and the player consumes different types of food, that player can get overpowered. So make it so that they can only consume half as much. At the same time, it is important that the player be able to consume food at a good pace. So let the players appetites come back a little quicker. I think a good target is that the player should be in a position to buf 2 out of every three battles (if they are not rationing out the food). Now, it is my understanding that each stat has a cap on it, but even with that cap, I think the player can get overpowered because I think they can effectively max out all their non-ham stats.

It will probably take a few iterations of playing with buf amounts/duration/food bulk/appetite regeneration to tweak this, but I think you can balance this pretty quick and provide a much needed boost to the crafting position.

Now, the current state of things is that a large percentage of the food items buf action and NOTHING bufs stamina (this is up to Dom III at any rate). Redistribute those action foods so at least one bufs stamina.

I think the goal should be that each non-ham stat have an item that bufs it for each food crafting skill the player has.

The following was my initial analysis of food crafting. The bufs will, of course, vary with quality of resource. The experience may be outdated. The issues I found are listed at the bottom:

The Drinks:
Aitha
Ingredients: 4 water, 4 meat, 4 mineral
Bufs: +35 action 150s, +35 mind 150s
CXP: 16

Caf
Ingredients: 10 water, 5 cereal, 8 mineral
Bufs: +25 action 226s, +24 quickness 226s, +57 focus 226s
CXP: 30

Jawa Beer
Ingredients: 10 cereal, 15 wooly hide, 10 mineral
Bufs:
CXP:

Ruby Bliel
Ingredients: 10 water, 15 fruit, 10 mineral
Bufs: +45 mind 384s
CXP: 72

Spiced Tea
Ingredients: 5 water, 2 organic, 4 mineral
Bufs: +25 action 158s, +42 focus 158s
CXP: 14

The Foods:
Air Cake
Ingredients: 1 carbosyrup, 1 Dough, 8 fruit
Bufs: +82 action 247s
CXP: 36

Blob Candy
Ingredients: 1 carbosyrup, 5 fruit
Bufs: +58 action 184s, -4 health 184s
CXP: 13

Bofa Treat
Ingredients: 3 organic, 8 cereal
Bufs: +40 action 98s
CXP: 20

Carmelized Pkneb
Ingredients: 1 carbosyrup, 20 meat, 20 bone
Bufs: +83 action 394s, -3 constitution 420s
CXP: 83

Carbosyrup
Ingredients: 6 flora food
Bufs:
CXP: 12

Crispic
Ingredients: 15 cereal, 10 meat
Bufs: +54 strength 193s
CXP: 50

Dough
Ingredients: 10 wheat
Bufs:
CXP: 20
Comments: Shouldn't there be water (suggestion 5 water)

Exo-Protein Wafers
Ingredients: 8 meat, 7 hide
Bufs: +44 constitution 148s, +44 willpower
CXP: 30

K-18 Rations
Ingredients: 15 meat, 5 fruit, 5 hide
Bufs: +53 constitution 191s, +53 willpower 191s
CXP: 50

Kanali Wafers
Ingredients: 1 carbosyrup, 20 fruit, 20 hide
Bufs: +72 quickness 402s
CXP: 83

Travel Biscuits
Ingredients: 3 cereal, 8 hide
Bufs: +39 constitution 97s
CXP: 20

Issues

When you experiment on dough and carbosyrup, none of the attributes display, so you cannot see how they are being modified. Experimentation, however, does have an effect. You just can't see it.

For all other foods, experimenation only alters the quanity. You can experiment on Flavor and Texture as well as Nutritional Value, however, neither the buf nor the duration ever increase.

Foods crafted with carbosyrup or dough initialy pick up bufs in all nine attributes. Once you experiment in Flavor and Texture or Nutrition, all bufs dissapear (except for the intended ones)

No resource has a "bulk" attribute, but all foods list it as an input.
When experimenting with drinks, "uses remaining" never displays so it doesn't look like experimenting with quantity makes a difference. However, when the item is produced, quantity is altered.

In the schematic, each food or drink should list which attribute it bufs under "Flavor and Texture" (to show duration mod) and "Nutritional Value" (to show amount mod)

Comments:

Carmelized Pkneb and Blob Candy are the only foods that have negative penalities. Why are those two so unhealthy when nothing else is?

Shouldn't Jawa Beer require water?

Shouldn't Dough require water?

--------------------

Ichiir the wookie, elder statesmen of Tusken's Bane (Tatooine -4657 -5731)

alizarinohm

Thu Jun 26, 2003 3:02 pm

#2

I was in beta and had a chance to look into food crafting. At the bottom is my research of all the food crafting up to Domestic III. The experience values may not be acurate because they were from early June. Food crafting as it stands has the POTENTIAL to be really great and I don't think it is that far off. However, at this time, there are still a couple of outstanding issues as well as some needed balance adjustments.

The thing about food crafting that is great is that they are consumables which is very good for the economy. They are also stat bufs which makes them desirable. The question is, which stats should they buf, by how much, for how long, and for how often. Towards the end of beta I focused on crafting consumables. The consumables I crafted were weapon powerup, but the experience provided me insights into how to make food desirable. This leads to my first set of suggestions:

DO NOT buf any of the ham stats. People bought powerups because with 100 charges, the affect lasted 3-6 battles. When you buf the ham stats, the positive affect is essentially only good for one hit in a battle.

DO BUF the other stats. By buffing the other stats, players will recieve the benefit over a longer period of time. This will make the buf more beneficial, and hence worth more to the player.

Lower the buf, increase the duration. I don't think people every really "got" food in beta. I sure didn't. After I made the powerups, however, it really hit me. I think the bufs that alter the non-ham stats are overpowered. If I quench my thirst with caf (say 6 drinks), I can buf my quickness and focus by 150. Think about how much that will reduce special action and mind costs. I recommend cutting the bufs by half, but increasing the duration by about 20-30%. The idea is that a single food item should last at least as long as an average battle (5 minutes?). It should not last as long as a powerup (3-6 battles) because I think when it comes down to it, food (when an entire stack is consumed at once) is far more powerful.

Increase how quick a player gets full, decrease the length of time a player is full. I think right now, you eat 8-10 items and drink the same number of items. If you implement suggestion (1) and the player consumes different types of food, that player can get overpowered. So make it so that they can only consume half as much. At the same time, it is important that the player be able to consume food at a good pace. So let the players appetites come back a little quicker. I think a good target is that the player should be in a position to buf 2 out of every three battles (if they are not rationing out the food). Now, it is my understanding that each stat has a cap on it, but even with that cap, I think the player can get overpowered because I think they can effectively max out all their non-ham stats.