Commando Archive
Thread: Some thoughts (repost from SWG Discussion)
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Pollaxius
Tue Aug 12, 2003 10:47 am
#1
This is a repost from the SWG Discussion forum. It's not specifically about Commandos, but enough of it relates to what y'all here seem to be dealing with that I thought I should post it here as well.
Repost as follows:
Has anyone else noticed in the last few days all the Dev posts have basically put the "Big Patch" out to be some kind of magic incantation used to ward off any criticism of lack of communication/broken professions/broken content? I have heard all kinds of information about the upcoming patch, but I find myself wondering.....so what?
I am a combat medic, a profession which luckily is "only" about halfway broken. The patch apparently is going to address one of our concerns with the CM profession, and that's a great thing. But I've been following the issues that some other professions are dealing with, and I am appaled at how little is really being done in the magical "Big Patch".
Just as an example, I can point to the Commando profession. I don't know anything about playing a Commando, but from what the Commando community is saying, that profession is almost totally broken. The "fix" in the patch changes the exp given to a single gun. That's it? I'm guessing that that particular change is not going to seriously alter the broken features of the Commando class, who will be told that they will need to wait for the next "Big Patch" to address more of their concerns (which will be when? a month? 6 weeks?). I know that Bio Engineers also have these sorts of issues.
There are some professions that the patch notes In Development do not mention at all. These professions may or may not NEED that much attention; frankly, I don't really know. But it seems disheartening that in the first large "catch-all" sort of patch, many professions are less than footnotes.....they simply do not even register.
Communication wise, what we as a community are getting is spotty at best. Purely by volume, Dev posts are woefully inadequate, but even beyond that, WHERE they are posting and WHAT they are posting about is also unacceptable. I think we all know that Creature Handlers are getting huge amounts of attention. Now, some of this attention may not be wanted by the CH community (i.e. nerfs), but at least they can say that they are getting responses to their concerns and critiques, at least to some degree. Most professions have received no feedback, no messages, no "hot fixes", nothing. This is not meant as a flame of CH's in any way, it's simply meant to illustrate the lack of communication that ALL professions should be receiving.
The fixes for the communication issues really are suprisingly simple. First, post responses to ALL the professions. This doesn't mean respond to all the threads in all the professions....that would be absurd. Rather, find something in each profession that seems constructive and useful, read it, and let that community know what you think about it. If nothing else, that will let each group of players know that they are not being overlooked or ignored in favor of some "favored" profession. Secondly, TALK TO YOUR CORRESPONDENTS! These people are supposed to be the community's "go between".....so use them. I have not seen much from the correspondents relating to responses to the reports they are feeding to the Devs. This has to be incredibly frustrating to the people who are trying to make a whole community better by doing a job the Devs asked them to do in the first place. I just read a post from the Commando Correspondent that he is quitting the game, and the biggest reason he cited was his frustration in bringing items to the Devs attention, and not only not seeing these items addressed, but not even getting any feedback from the Devs he is trying to help.
I don't know the logistics on all this....maybe more Devs to deal with forum communication are needed. However, I DO think that these steps really are necessary to keep the player base at least marginally informed, as well as to build some trust with the player base. That way, when a Dev mentions large patches and the profession fixes that are going to be in them, the players will BELIEVE it. Right now, I'm not sure that many people really do.
Anyway, that's just my take on what I see here. Sorry I carried on for so long.
Pollaxius Castora
Chilastra
Repost as follows:
Has anyone else noticed in the last few days all the Dev posts have basically put the "Big Patch" out to be some kind of magic incantation used to ward off any criticism of lack of communication/broken professions/broken content? I have heard all kinds of information about the upcoming patch, but I find myself wondering.....so what?
I am a combat medic, a profession which luckily is "only" about halfway broken. The patch apparently is going to address one of our concerns with the CM profession, and that's a great thing. But I've been following the issues that some other professions are dealing with, and I am appaled at how little is really being done in the magical "Big Patch".
Just as an example, I can point to the Commando profession. I don't know anything about playing a Commando, but from what the Commando community is saying, that profession is almost totally broken. The "fix" in the patch changes the exp given to a single gun. That's it? I'm guessing that that particular change is not going to seriously alter the broken features of the Commando class, who will be told that they will need to wait for the next "Big Patch" to address more of their concerns (which will be when? a month? 6 weeks?). I know that Bio Engineers also have these sorts of issues.
There are some professions that the patch notes In Development do not mention at all. These professions may or may not NEED that much attention; frankly, I don't really know. But it seems disheartening that in the first large "catch-all" sort of patch, many professions are less than footnotes.....they simply do not even register.
Communication wise, what we as a community are getting is spotty at best. Purely by volume, Dev posts are woefully inadequate, but even beyond that, WHERE they are posting and WHAT they are posting about is also unacceptable. I think we all know that Creature Handlers are getting huge amounts of attention. Now, some of this attention may not be wanted by the CH community (i.e. nerfs), but at least they can say that they are getting responses to their concerns and critiques, at least to some degree. Most professions have received no feedback, no messages, no "hot fixes", nothing. This is not meant as a flame of CH's in any way, it's simply meant to illustrate the lack of communication that ALL professions should be receiving.
The fixes for the communication issues really are suprisingly simple. First, post responses to ALL the professions. This doesn't mean respond to all the threads in all the professions....that would be absurd. Rather, find something in each profession that seems constructive and useful, read it, and let that community know what you think about it. If nothing else, that will let each group of players know that they are not being overlooked or ignored in favor of some "favored" profession. Secondly, TALK TO YOUR CORRESPONDENTS! These people are supposed to be the community's "go between".....so use them. I have not seen much from the correspondents relating to responses to the reports they are feeding to the Devs. This has to be incredibly frustrating to the people who are trying to make a whole community better by doing a job the Devs asked them to do in the first place. I just read a post from the Commando Correspondent that he is quitting the game, and the biggest reason he cited was his frustration in bringing items to the Devs attention, and not only not seeing these items addressed, but not even getting any feedback from the Devs he is trying to help.
I don't know the logistics on all this....maybe more Devs to deal with forum communication are needed. However, I DO think that these steps really are necessary to keep the player base at least marginally informed, as well as to build some trust with the player base. That way, when a Dev mentions large patches and the profession fixes that are going to be in them, the players will BELIEVE it. Right now, I'm not sure that many people really do.
Anyway, that's just my take on what I see here. Sorry I carried on for so long.
Pollaxius Castora
Chilastra
Pollaxius
Tue Aug 12, 2003 2:26 pm
#2
TalonTrueFlight wrote:
Use our correspondant? He became dispondant. What correspondant?
*sigh* There is that....the point is that if they would have worked with Garibaldi and given him some sort of feedback, y'all might still have a correspondant. I feel for the Commandos, I really do. Good luck, guys.
Pollaxius
TalonTrueFlight
Wed Aug 13, 2003 12:54 am
#3
Use our correspondant? He became dispondant. What correspondant?
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