Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Do the Devs want CH to go away?
Message Edited by meroc on 02-19-2004 12:12 AM
Nice postI have been CH since day one and still am 8 or 9 months later. To answer your question "Do the Devs want CH to "go away"?" read your own post. The answer is: YES!
Ecco Ton
My answer to that question = No.
They are just having a hard time deciding on a design and properly implementing it.
A really hard time.
Yes it is obviously true the CH profession is on it's way out. I believe it is intentional.
Maybe it could stay as a novelty profession, if so please give us back at least half our skill points. Give us back half our CH skill points anyway since the CH profession is practically useless even when it is working.
I am a level 4/4/3/4 CH and till the assassination of the CH profession last week was a 3/4/3/4 Pistoleer. Now I am still a 4/4/3/4 CH (but haven't been able to use my pets) and have dropped most of Pistoleer and been playing as a 2/2/2/2 TK.
Why can I now kill MOBs alone easily that I couldn't before even with my pets?
I am not crying to nerf the TK especially now that I am one. But make the other professions have power too. A CH, Pistoleer with a Rancor and stopping shot/Double tap shouldn't be less powerful than a 2/2/2/2 TK.
Even when CH is working it is little more than a novelty profession.
Give us back some of our skill points so we can keep the profession for the novelty of pulling a large animal from our pants and still have the skill points to take up some useful professions.
Don't get me wrong I love the CH profession but can't understand why it has been so handicapped (someone in power hates CH in my opinion).
I have only played like 6 weeks can someone more experienced than me tell me was CH ever powerful enough to be competitive?
I was anticipating this game starting in 2002 but waited till Jan 2004 to buy it, thinking all the issues must be fixed by now. It is ridiculous to still have so many problems this long after release. Fix the game. Fix it now. If you don't have the people with the ability to fix the issues fire them and hire competent programmers. I manage programmers for a living and have had to fire dozens of incompetent ones in the last few years.
HELLO is anyone there? NO? Didn't think so.
Devs may have convinced themselves that they are just trying to reach a balance, when in fact they are really trying to get people out of this profession. No matter what the devs do, they will always have the problem of pets tanking too good. So how do you solve that, make everything kite your pet and blame it on them being cowards, lol. But really, I know once a Profession reaches a certain % of the population its nerfing time. Only problem is, CH has almost no one left from the old days and yet they are still nerfing. Conclusion, CH is doomed.
I'm not saying conspiracy, what I'm saying is devs saw CH as overpowered from the begining of the game and didnt know what to do. Instead of telling everone the profession is being dropped from the game, they nerf it every patch to the point only the hardcore CH's that are in it for taming will stay. CH has gone from a good Combat Profession, to a Support Profession, to what we have now. I would like them to define what we have now.
If it's true that TH has EVER called us the "Pokemon class"... he needs to be removed as correspondant this second. At least get someone that doesn't view us as a joke to begin with.
I don't know that he has. I never saw it. But, the amount of crap that this class has been through I think demands someone that's on our side somewhat.
meroc wrote:
It seems obvious to me that CH is the "red headed step child" of SWG.
Just to put this into context, I don't make a habit of flaming Devs.
I know TH has a tough job. He's not just the "Voice of the People", he's the "red flag" to the "bull" that is every angry/upset customer. Heusually has the patience of a saint and I give him credit for what he DOES do right (which is a fair bit if your honest about it). IMHO though, he let's CH down when it comes to representing us. When CH are hurting, he's usually one of the third or fourth posters down insulting us with outdated and ill informed "poke"comments.
And is it any wonder CH's are hurting?
1.TH callsus "poke-mon" every time hementions the class. How can anyone have any confidence that anyonethat calls usthat is serious when they say they have the best interest's of the class in mind?
Ok, I get tired of seeing this. He never actually called us "poke-mon". He did refer to "poke-mon" like tactics which you hopefully should understand would take place given half the chance.
2. The "glory days" are gone but everyone still thinkswe have the same powerwe did back then. CH suck at PvP (worse than suck, we really are a joke at it if we don't have a "real job") and we take 3-5 times longer to do a mission than a "real" combat class (I know, we're a "support" class. Who decided that? Why AREN'T we a combat class? If we're supposed to be a "tank" class, why do our pets run away and damage dealing combat classesmake better tanks than we do?). The hybrid/dabblers that gave CH such a bad name to begin with have dumpedCH and moved on to Doctor, Fencer and other classes and CH alone can't "support" squat (try getting that last slot in a group if a Fencer, TKA or even a Pikeman is looking....).
Ok...I get tired of hearing this one too. If you are a support class, it's your choice because this is a class-less game. Your argument would hold true if you didn't have other skillpoints to invest but the fact remains the mastering CH still allows you to master another elite combat profession. I chose to Master BE along with CH so I gave up some combat ability to do so...the fact remains that the choice is yours.
3. TH doesn't acknowledge that the exploits that have been fixed make the 30 second delay on "camp free calling" a joke. Pets alreadycan't be called in combat or stored for 60 seconds after combat. How would a Commando or BH feel if he/she couldn't draw a weapon for 30 seconds and not at all if the combat has already started?IfTH, the "Voice of the People", doesn't know the class well enough to know this, then once again, how can a member of that class have any confidence that their class is being looked after and represented fairly? The conespondent seems to have a good handle on it, but as one voice in 30+ he doesn't seem to get much "air time" or worse, is ignored because we had recent "fixing".
30 seconds is no big deal to me so either way it goes, it won't affect my play style. If you are into pvp, then this could impact you but I doubt there are many people pvping who just use pets as their weapon.
4. With the Droid Commander and Combat droids coming, the CH class will all but disappear. The DCclass will be balanced for current content and will probably be "extra good" cause it will be in the lime light and flavour of the month. This in my mind is as big an issue asthe rest. If the Devs didn't/don't want CH as a class, they should just have the guts to say so and give CH's an oppertunity to find another class/path that suits them beforeintoducingthe DC...
Maybe you don't read up on the DE forum but this idea has been scrapped for now. There will not be a new Droid Commander profession (at least not in the immediate future).
If the Devs have any sense they'd make "Droid Commander" one tree off a "Commander" class and "Creature Handler" wouldbe another tree in that class, otherwise CH will just end up as a footnote to the history ofSWG,witha handful of diehards clinging on to a class that is beyond it's "best before" and is only any good for taming rares that no body wants...
Thunderheart, I give you credit where it's due, you've had a tremendous positive impact on this game. But the "turn arounds fair play" to that is I think you are not doing a very good job in regards to Creature Handlers, the people and the class.
Please stop the "poke"insults,try playing the class from the ground up and consider a "Commander" class that takes in all NPCCreature/Droid handling.
Failing that,please at least stop the "poke" insults.
(Edit: Two typos)
Message Edited by meroc on 02-19-2004 12:12 AM
I briefly addressed your points above but there are also some additional thinks to take into consideration. If you remember correctly, the devs said that when the initial creature changes went in, it would seem like some of the other combat types seemed more powerful. This would be the case until the final balancing went in. If you've noticed, some of these classes have begun to feel that effect as their effective power has been brought back in line. You only feel this pain because we were the first but it was a necessary first because creatures impact a large part of this game. Wait until all the combat classes have gone through their balance before you make judgements on how effective CH is.
-Bochuu
The problem with labeling us the "po-ke-mon" class is that this entire game is nothing but magic pockets, out of which we pull pistols, power hammers, speeders, creature pets, droids, houses, flamethrowers, force crystals, entire wardrobes, boxes of thousands of units of milk, mineral, hide, bone, flowers, wheat, fiberplast, etc ad nauseum.
So the po-ke-mon thing is pure bigotry...displaced displeasure for the artificiallity of the game environment onto one group of players.
Additional, after asking what our problems were with this patch, he still hadn't figured out allour pets were running from every fight.
SioBabble wrote:
The problem with labeling us the "po-ke-mon" class is that this entire game is nothing but magic pockets, out of which we pull pistols, power hammers, speeders, creature pets, droids, houses, flamethrowers, force crystals, entire wardrobes, boxes of thousands of units of milk, mineral, hide, bone, flowers, wheat, fiberplast, etc ad nauseum.
So the po-ke-mon thing is pure bigotry...displaced displeasure for the artificiallity of the game environment onto one group of players.
Exactly...