Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Hey SOE... How do you expect Creature Handler to be able to fight now?
Well said ... very well said ... now, it is gonna do any good? Think any DEVs will read this? All I can say is Ko-aIri, can you take some of this to the DEVs ... geeze I know I don't even have to ask! You are there for us Ko-aIri ... keep banging on their door for us ... maybe someday they will listen
Orileous wrote:
To whom it may concern on the SOE staff,
After this lasted publish (publish 20) you have stripped away the last thing the Creature Handler had that worked, pulling a single target. Now that creature pets do not have specials, only have one type of melee or ranged attack and now everything in a lair attacks the creature handler himself/herself, how do you expect a Creature Handler to be able to survive? Creature Handler is suppost to be some sort of combat profession yet it seems that you made the profession so stripped down with no defenses and no pet specials that its pointless to be one. Only three weeks ago I tamed a guardian mite on endor that was hitting me with dizzy, stun and blind. Yet when I tamed one, it did none of the above as a pet. I'm asking you in the nicest possible way... Please fix (not nerf) Creature Handler so it can actually fight. When you send in a pet in to attack, we are the only profession that cannot retreat because of the fact that we cannot tell the pet to stop attacking an retreat. It really appears to me that whomever was in charge of keeping track of the creature handler changes did not put in any thought as to how a player will be able to enjoy playing a creature handler. After all, a game is suppose to be enjoyed. If Creature Handler is going to be phased out in the future, at least be up front about it. The only thing left to do now to Creature Handlers is to tie his/her hands behind their backs, tie them to a tree and put a kick me sign on them. About 90% of the "fixes" to Creature Handlers stripped away more and more of what once was a fun profession. Now it just seems that we send pets in for the slaughter.
SWG Player for two years and Creature Handler for most of that time...
Orileous Arnos - Naritus
Naro Icon - Radiant
Orileous wrote:
Now it just seems that we send pets in for the slaughter.
I've concluded that there aren't any devs who actually play as a CH. Certainly none who have played it for any length of time. That might seem obvious, butI find that I'm a bit surprised.
Many if not all the devs actually play this game when they can. When I was at FanFest I heard devs say "I'm a smuggler" or "I'm a BH" or some other profession. While I'm sure they've all played multiple professions, I'm also sure thatmany have one profession that they identify with and know how that profession works asboth a player and a dev.
Yes, there isa dev responsible foroverseeing CH and creating things like the new specials system for pets - whatever that might be. He's the same dev who saidhis CL 60 pet defeated a CL 80 creature. He said that, I believe, because he doesn't really play as a CH, only at being a CHand doesn't understand the professionas a player.I have to think that none of the devs do.Maybe they understand it in the abstract, as a theory, so to speak.But they don't know the profession as players.
I kind of see it like the devs are Marie Antoinette. Supposedly, when told that the peasants had no bread and were hungry, she said let them eat cake. She didn't say that because she was callous, but because she really didn't understand the situation. She just thought that they could eat cake instead of bread not understanding that they had neither. How do the devs expect CH to fight now? Why, with cake, of course.
Prior to pub 20 i noticed my pets sometimes not regenerating. If you then issued a command (normally for me a follow command) then the pet started to regenerate even if it didn't move anywhere. Guess this is a little bugged.
Hope this helps
Every story like this reminds me of just how passionate a lot of Creature Handlers here are and how they feel about their pets.
It saddens me to see my pet friends that I have like the once great Mantigrue Screecher, Gaping Spider Recluse amongst others reduced to generic meat-shields. Those just being a couple "off the top of my head" but it is very saddening.
I find it impossible to release any of my creatures that being said. They are my friends.
I long for the day when my friends will once again regain their uniqueness - but perhaps that might not ever happen given the "equalising" nature of the Combat "upgrade". 
I'm not against the Combat Upgrade per se, I just hate what it's done to my pets. They could have been altered and retained their individuality -but alas, not to be.
i used to have broadband. that was nice - i could go to dant and not lag too bad,
(on dialup now)
came in right around 17.0, did my newbie quests at mos eisley, had a bit of fun grinding to level 80.
i had nice template that made a good damage sponge in a group. CM/TK i'd toss a high agro neurotoxin and/or deuterium, held agro by healing myself. didn't even have to taunt. that lasted a few days, i rather enjoyed having 5 mobs pound on me (i could survive in a group from this with a muon gold and my innate TK armor even with the older slow heal rates!)
well, i couldn't really respec but wanted to try ranger - i surrendered my skills for the trapping exp issue so i could get exp and have been recovering ever since. i'm almost master ranger now, with CH (3-4-2-4)
CH has been nice, i didn't need to be agro sponge anymore because it was now my pets job - i never invested in armor.
but when i'm firing 1 or 2 shots at a mob since 20.0 came out i get eaten alive.
i've got 2 female nargs that keep getting incapped even when i manage to get enough agro for getting myself eaten/incapped! (and then i end up having to store and recall them because incap recovery isn't working)
i honestly have to throw traps now and eat up all my experience i'm trying to put toward CH.
ouch! i can't solo CH and get much expanymore, thanks sony it'll be a while before i can help my game-spouse defend against sith. they really want to start glowing too!
I wonder how pissed off a Jedi would be if a thrown saber just landed in the dirt and he had to go pick it up? Working as intended?
Or if 'force cloak' gave him a nice glowyparka. Working as intended?
Or if a Squad Leader used 'retreat' and then tried 'attack my target'but everybody just kept on running....
So, here is my new proposed 'top five' biggest problems list:
1. SOE. Do I have to say any more?
2.Quality Control. Pretty obvious.
3. Dev Management team. I won't lay it directly on the devs, because it's management that runs the show.
4. Forced publish schedule. Goes back to quality control. Don't release it until it WORKS.
5. Test Center. Pay ATTENTION to the BUG REPORTS. They're there for a reason.
Oh, just for the record: I'm not ranting yet. You don't want to see me fired up.
They dont, they expect you to die Mr. Bond.