Commando Archive
Thread: An Immodest Proposal
I'm not a programmer. I'm not in any way affiliated with any sort of video game design (though I'd love to write dialogue and events one day). I'm just a guy who has his own ideas and hopes for this game. For a year, I've pretty much kept them to myself, but after trying very hard to test Publish 10 on TC2 and failing miserably due to work schedules and dead ends, I'm just going to throw some ideas down and hope maybe someone will agree.
We play a massively multi-player online roleplaying game. When one plays any sort of RPG, they expect to be the star or, at the very least, be capable of progressing a story when they want, exploring anything available whenever they please. Some people like the side quests, others do the minimum in order to get to the end.
The problem with an MMORPG is that there is no end. There are achievements, but the game, the STORY, doesn't stop dead when all things are said and done for a particular character. Much like real life, few people are so important that the world will not go on if they choose not to continue. Gods or mortals, the galaxies of Star Wars continue regardless of feelings - harsh or fair, one man's opinion matters little to the world of Star Wars.
Most want to be the important character around whom a story revolves. Obviously, this can only be done through roleplaying. Or can it?
Due to the chosen timeline in which Star Wars Galaxies takes place, Jedi absolutely must be rare - or at least elusive. Right now, Jedi are an anachronism, popping up in a time where they are unwelcome and quite possibly unacceptable in the general scheme of Lucas's original vision. There seems to be no way to reconcile player wishes and creator vision. This is what my proposal attempts to rectify.
What is a Jedi?
A Jedi is potential. A conduit that may, with proper training and mindset, funnel the Force of the galaxy through their body to gain freedom, enlightenment, power, ability, confidence. Everything a creature can be is locked within the mortal shell of its body, only to be freed by a mysticism known as the Force. The Force is in all creatures, but Jedi are the anthromophic adaptation of the vague notion of energy in existence.
Jedi have been creators and destroyers. They have led purges and they have been purged. We have seen Dark and we have seen Light, but we have never witnessed the shades in between - the Jedi that understand that there is no evil - it is only a perception of the other side. To a Light Jedi, the Dark Side is evil. to a Dark Jedi, the Light Side is evil. Neither are right. Both are capable of love, hate, and every emotion in between.
All Jedi are both peacemakers and warmongers. You cannot be one without the other. There are no bystander Jedi ... at least there were none before. With the knowledge that Yoda had removed himself from the ways of the Jedi and lived in solitude, there is opportunity for a story: a story for Jedis raised in solitude, avowed to nothing but survival, hoping to find purpose like their forefathers before them.
At the time of SWG, hope is just creeping back into the galaxies (hence the name of the original Star Wars movie: A New Hope). Now is the time to train and prepare. The time for Jedi has come and gone, but a new dawn is approaching.
Finding the Force Potential
So you want to join the dawn of a new Jedi civilization? The path cannot be easy, but nor can it be soul crushing. The purpose of the Force within a being is to lift them up, not brutally suppress them into routine. This is where solitude and a search for enlightenment comes into play. Puzzle solving in an MMORPG - we almost saw it with Uru, a few others have made cursory attempts, but now is the time to draw it out into the open. An MMORPG that becomes a true, classical adventure game. Inventory puzzles, research, mystery, study. Consuming the mind, not the hand on the action keys. The Force is there within you, do you have the intelligence and tact to unlock it?
The Force is Strong within You
Existing Jedi can sense the potential in a soul. They can guide you, check your progress, but never collect you for safer realms. Jedi and their potential initiates should NEVER gather for fear of an Imperial purge. To collect within a village, town, or camp ground is to provoke the Empire into action. Certainly Jedi and force sensitives are potentially dangerous, but no one man can make a difference in this world without help. Solos can be tolerated. Groupings must be destroyed. Offer advice and guidance, but never physical assistance.
So You Want to be a Jedi?
You must go it alone. You must meditate and practice (twitch based telekinesis and orb blocking?). Study the texts you can get your hands on through journies, they will provide your mind with insight into the secrets. Never kill humanoids indiscriminately. Spend hours leaning over your desk, assembling a puzzle-ing lightsaber. Travel into the depths of a (instanced) cave to find secrets of those who have gone before you, testing your will with a lightsaber, discovering your random abilities through persistance and patience. Whether you get to Jedi in days or months, there is just one caveat....
You Have No Place in This World
Every so often, Jedi will be called into service. Some by the Empire, others by the shades of Light Siders past. But you must understand that you are a Jedi and you are not here to excel, you are here to exist and explore mysteries. To fight the Empire will get you mercilessly hunted down by swarms of troopers and droids. To fight the Rebels is to force the hand of the few Light Side masters remaining and, remember: the light side will always triumph in the end.
You have no place. You are, by necessity, a neutral party confined to an adventure game within an RPG. There will always be quests for you to do, you can always chop up some secluded animals if you're the type, but you are playing a roleplaying game and in this world, your role is as bystander. At least until...
A Call to War
The Galactic Civil War truly explodes (preferably somewhere down the line, when the timeline proceeds further into the original three movies in order to allow for more freedom - though I doubt that will ever be allowed). It is time to choose sides - if you wish - and assemble without fear. It is time to reveal yourself to the public and take part in the regular combat stories within the game. The Councils will convene, members will rise and fall, and SWG can enter a new era of storytelling.
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Obviously this is a method of patience. Patience required to program, patience required to wait, patience required to continue the path. All of us, from gamers to developers to story lawyers and rules doctors, have exhibited a colossal amount of patience. It is time for fun and excitement, not a continuing need to juggle mobs to a mental breaking point.
This is just one suggestion. I'm confident that there is someone out there with an idea that isn't just acceptable as a compromise. There's an answer to be found beyond exasperation. It will come from constructive minds and well-thought presentations. No harsh words, no hatred, no "they need to do _______". They know what they need to do ... they just need to find the best way to do it and that requires time.
Who else has a presentable suggestion? I realize these posts fall off the boards fairly quickly, so feel free to mail me the salient points. If we all work together, particularly with the Jedi Correspondent, we can create a proposal that may even surprise the developers ... perhaps even Lucas himself (if he even cares for this game).
We want fun, so it's time to make it. The future of MMORPGs is up to us. If we can come up with a way to stop xp grinding, we may help SWG become an absolute visionary in the field. If we can get other developers to stop following a formula of growth through culling, we won't have to keep consuming the same thing in every game. There's an answer somewhere. One of us has it. And I'll bet they aren't in the gaming industry. But they should be.
This and the head of their favorite pets in their beds are my only ideas for getting notice, anyone got one better?
OsloisAwomaow wrote:
This could actually make them so mad they might nerf us into oblivion
they did that with the CU already.
OsloisAwomaow wrote:
They will take whats left of us and then nerf it.
LOL It would be really hard to make us worse, and still have the profession on the list of available professions.
Seriously beat the piss out out of someone and see if one more kick really hurts them that much worse.
Memo to SWG Devs from an SOE meeting:
There have been several accusations towards the Developers of Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, saying that they are not creating the best game possible. Realizing this ourselves, we have devised numerous changes that should be placed in high priority when considering bug fixes. Let us begin...
The professions are a joke. Why have 32 when you can just have 6?Six seems to work for other games, so why break the chain eh? The professions that would stay would be Jedi, Bounty Hunter, Master Crafter, Barbarian, Commando, and Ranger. We feel that Jedi is the future of this game and our paychecks, so we would fire anyone and everyone who would think of changing Jedi for the worst....for then everyone who owns their jedi would cancel their multiple accounts. Bounty Hunters must not be able to hunt any Jedi other than master Jedi, and Bounty Hunters can only face jedi 1 on 1....except a jedi can have several friends heal him for a TEF to fight the Bounty Hunter also. Also, Bounty Hunters can get marks on Rangers, because no one likes them and they smell funny--like my grandmother. I'M COMING MOTHER!!! /achem
Anyways, since having multiple crafter professions was too hard to balance and manage, there will only be one novice profession that gives a person the ability to create current 12-pt items without use of attachments, because crystals and pearls should be the only real money-makers in the game, since Jedi are Gods. Also, we thought that giving Jedi no armor when clearly fans have made stories about them wearing armor well have been around for decades. So now Jedi can wear any armor for no penalty. There will no longer be numerous types of armor in the game, however...it will be only Composite and Bone. Composite because we here all love Terminator, and Bone because we felt like it. To help the Jedi in their quest for godly powers, we will be nerfing the Bounty Hunters so if they used armor they could no longer run properly, and would be prone to falling over and randomly dying. Plus, Jedi can kill anything in one hit, because we wanted to reward the Jedi for sticking out the Commando nerfs. They didn't stick them out? Oh well, we just like Jedi, and that's all that matters.
As for the Barbarian profession, who were doesn't want to hold two giant-azzed swords and hack gremlins into little pieces? So with that we have added Gremlins as a new supoer Mob that is slaughtering noobs across the galaxy...to discourage anyone from grinding long enough to reach Jedi. So there, we have solved the problem of not allowing too many Jedi in the game now! /appoints $1,000,000 bonus to everyone in room, gives Commandos a lolli-pop.
At long last we come to the Commando and Ranger professions, but in reality they will be broken. Why? To make everyone have a harder time of grinding out Jedi, of course! Besides, making varied weapons is too hard, so all crafters will have to deal with are pistols and carbines, which Bounty Hunters use. But to satisfy the Commandos, we will be giving them an "uber" weapons of mass destruction....yes, we mean the NUNA KILLER OF DOOM. It has a 100% chance of instantly-killing the user, and only a 1% chance of actually hitting its target. But that 1% is too much, so nerf it to .00000001% by the next day please. For the Rangers we will make camps instead attract aggro in the area, as well as instantly turning any Mob in the area into a level 180 Elite Mob that does 30k damage in one hit. Why? For kicks n' giggles....we can even make a LAN party to watch them! It'll be great, grand wonderful....
For the space and GCW parts of the game, Jedi will kill everyone, except themselves. Jedi will not be able to kill one another, for it is not the Jedi way...whereas Sith ll be introduced and can kill noobs with ease. Jedi and Sith can use force powers in space, and we will get rid of the GCW, and simply call the game Star Wars: Jedi Gone Crazy. We can even market it to horomone-charged teenagers, who will buy the game without thinking it does not involve what they thought it would involve.....yeah.....
So there are our planned changes, and if they are not met within three weeks you will all be fired and must face the wrath of our Dark Lord, Master Lucas. Dismissed!
Btw.....that was my Modest Proposal.....
Tyreal18 wrote:
Memo to SWG Devs from an SOE meeting:
There have been several accusations towards the Developers of Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, saying that they are not creating the best game possible. Realizing this ourselves, we have devised numerous changes that should be placed in high priority when considering bug fixes. Let us begin...
The professions are a joke. Why have 32 when you can just have 6?Six seems to work for other games, so why break the chain eh? The professions that would stay would be Jedi, Bounty Hunter, Master Crafter, Barbarian, Commando, and Ranger. We feel that Jedi is the future of this game and our paychecks, so we would fire anyone and everyone who would think of changing Jedi for the worst....for then everyone who owns their jedi would cancel their multiple accounts. Bounty Hunters must not be able to hunt any Jedi other than master Jedi, and Bounty Hunters can only face jedi 1 on 1....except a jedi can have several friends heal him for a TEF to fight the Bounty Hunter also. Also, Bounty Hunters can get marks on Rangers, because no one likes them and they smell funny--like my grandmother. I'M COMING MOTHER!!! /achem
Anyways, since having multiple crafter professions was too hard to balance and manage, there will only be one novice profession that gives a person the ability to create current 12-pt items without use of attachments, because crystals and pearls should be the only real money-makers in the game, since Jedi are Gods. Also, we thought that giving Jedi no armor when clearly fans have made stories about them wearing armor well have been around for decades. So now Jedi can wear any armor for no penalty. There will no longer be numerous types of armor in the game, however...it will be only Composite and Bone. Composite because we here all love Terminator, and Bone because we felt like it. To help the Jedi in their quest for godly powers, we will be nerfing the Bounty Hunters so if they used armor they could no longer run properly, and would be prone to falling over and randomly dying. Plus, Jedi can kill anything in one hit, because we wanted to reward the Jedi for sticking out the Commando nerfs. They didn't stick them out? Oh well, we just like Jedi, and that's all that matters.
As for the Barbarian profession, who were doesn't want to hold two giant-azzed swords and hack gremlins into little pieces? So with that we have added Gremlins as a new supoer Mob that is slaughtering noobs across the galaxy...to discourage anyone from grinding long enough to reach Jedi. So there, we have solved the problem of not allowing too many Jedi in the game now! /appoints $1,000,000 bonus to everyone in room, gives Commandos a lolli-pop.
At long last we come to the Commando and Ranger professions, but in reality they will be broken. Why? To make everyone have a harder time of grinding out Jedi, of course! Besides, making varied weapons is too hard, so all crafters will have to deal with are pistols and carbines, which Bounty Hunters use. But to satisfy the Commandos, we will be giving them an "uber" weapons of mass destruction....yes, we mean the NUNA KILLER OF DOOM. It has a 100% chance of instantly-killing the user, and only a 1% chance of actually hitting its target. But that 1% is too much, so nerf it to .00000001% by the next day please. For the Rangers we will make camps instead attract aggro in the area, as well as instantly turning any Mob in the area into a level 180 Elite Mob that does 30k damage in one hit. Why? For kicks n' giggles....we can even make a LAN party to watch them! It'll be great, grand wonderful....
For the space and GCW parts of the game, Jedi will kill everyone, except themselves. Jedi will not be able to kill one another, for it is not the Jedi way...whereas Sith ll be introduced and can kill noobs with ease. Jedi and Sith can use force powers in space, and we will get rid of the GCW, and simply call the game Star Wars: Jedi Gone Crazy. We can even market it to horomone-charged teenagers, who will buy the game without thinking it does not involve what they thought it would involve.....yeah.....
So there are our planned changes, and if they are not met within three weeks you will all be fired and must face the wrath of our Dark Lord, Master Lucas. Dismissed!
Btw.....that was my Modest Proposal.....
That is what is called WORST CASE SCENARIO!
VitoGenovese wrote:
OK so heres the deal. We are having a really hard time getting our issues fixed even though I know starnick has done everything but leave a severed horses head in the devs/producers beds. We should try that too. ANYWAY here is my idea. All of us over-18 types need to go to our local strip pit and tip the ladies to write, "STARNICK!" really big across their bosoms and take a photograph. Then PM/email these pictures to the developers. If this wont get their attention then we will have to get the ladies help...
This and the head of their favorite pets in their beds are my only ideas for getting notice, anyone got one better?
Ummm no. Stern does a rockin' job. We see the results. The complaints go in. The Dev's decide to shaft us. No way in hell will I promote losing Stern which is what your are doing in asking for something for spamming the Dev's. Look at the AS coro.... he asked for it, but with the SoE track record I wouldn't doubt if they blamed him even when someone else promoted it. You do not want to do this.
...But you could always email the pictures to me
StarNick wrote:
Yeah emailing them to the Devs may be a bad idea...
...But you could always email the pictures to me
Eh, I was joking (mostly...)
The Humor was getting a bit thin around here.
Stern got it!
This would be a good reward for Stern, a virtual tour of the gentlemans clubs...lol.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Message Edited by VitoGenovese on 06-15-2005 09:34 PM
Wookienstein wrote:
This could actually make them so mad they might nerf us into oblivion wait hold on, they havent already nerfed us to oblivion already?
Like i said, they will take whats left of us and nerf it.