Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Time to demand some answers to our questions? Most definately...
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Aakhperkare
Wed Jun 30, 2004 1:26 pm
#1
I hate to sound all preachy and lame, so I appologize.
I may be impatient. But I can't wait any longer for some answers to our questions that we were expecting last year. I am not saying revolt or anything like that. But I think it is WAY past time we got the answers we've been waiting for.
I've tried being constructive about our current situation. And everyone here has given some incredible feedback that has gone pretty much unnoticed. I am not really concerned whether or not the devs are too busy with other things at the moment. What I am concerned with is that we get the clarification we have been waiting for with an astonishing degree of patience.
Anyone else feel this way? I think it's time to start pestering some red names...
Message Edited by Aakhperkare on 07-01-2004 12:44 PM
Pluto9Moon
Wed Jun 30, 2004 3:27 pm
#2
First off, welcome back Aakh.
Second, there is no real way to do this other than hijacking their own forums.
Third, I am in no matter what. We dissidents have been way too nice of late. It is time we voice our ever lovin' opinions again.
Second, there is no real way to do this other than hijacking their own forums.
Third, I am in no matter what. We dissidents have been way too nice of late. It is time we voice our ever lovin' opinions again.
BlindTyldak
Wed Jun 30, 2004 4:15 pm
#3
We have been told numerous times that being disruptive, angry, and confrontational will get us nowhere, that the Devs will not listen if we go in looking for a fight.
I, for one, don't see things being any different when we try playing nice, either. I say its time to start running with scissors again.
We are a small group now, simply because so many people have left this crippled profession. The Devs say we just need to be patient, and wait for the combat reballance. They've already trashed the combat reballance with the new Jedi skill allocation points, as well as the Bounty Hunter point reallocation with the dropping of three required lines from the Scout tree. And the comabt reballance will not fix the bugs that make this class virtually unplayable by anyone who expects the game to run properly.
Come the combat reballance, our pets will supposedly be brought back in line with the rest of the combat classes. We who have been through this before and know the effects of strength-dabblers know that this is either a.) a flat out lie or b.) we will be reballanced/nerfed yet AGAIN so that the classes with freed skill points, and those with minimal requirements, will not be overpowered. Because our pets are so visible, WE are seen as the problem, not the availability of the skill points for practically exploitive use.
There are several things that we can do here, and SHOULD do here, to protect our class, our livelyhoods, and our animals.
1.) Soon enough, there will be threads started by the devs in the red message boards for the Combat Reballance patch. We should make a concentrated effort - spam them as a group, if necessary - to ensure that the Devs know our concerns and answer them before the average player starts coming down on the CH's again.
2.) TC Players: work your CH's if you have them to try to make the most uber combo possible, and then report it on the TC boards as issues with the availability of the skill points, NOT the overpowering of the pets. We all know that animal strength isn't the issue; mass animal availability for a few points is.
3.) Vert: Hon, you're doing a great job, but we need to take preventive action NOW. You're our closest link to the reds. We need a Dev (as in, one who works on the game, not someone who speaks for them and is generally clueless) to come in and listen to us once or twice. Here's a new approach: ask if we can make an appointment with one of them, a specific day that we know that one of them will read the boards. With a few days notice, we can concentrate on getting our greatest issues, bugs, and concerns cataloged and constructively compiled as a group. Yes, I know that's your job as our correspondent, but many voices are louder than one, and a variety of wording and viewpoints can give them a clearer picture. All we'd ask is for that dev to read what we say, and at the end of the day, make a post or two. If anything is brought before the Dev team, a followup post with the results of the meeting as well. TWO POSTS, that's all we ask, and a little bit of their time.
4.) Enourage Creature Handling as a viable class again at all levels of ability. I know that many people here will not agree with me, but IMHO this is not the time to be focusing on things like uniting Master CH's, this is the time to unite ALL CH's. This is the time to get out there and show everyone that we're not the elitists they take us for. The general misconception is that we are CH's for combat uberness, or that we take MCH for the sake of looking and acting better than everyone else. We should encourage people to start CH again, and listen to the new players just as much, if not MORE, than the Masters. They are the ones who will have to level through the reballance, they are the ones who will feel the effects even more than we ourselves, they are the ones who may stall out and become dabblers. By growing our ranks of class-mates to people of all ability and giving them an equal voice, we can help to ensure that the class remains ballanced. By welcoming the lower levels of players and the dabblers, we show them that those of us who stuck through it care about their characters as well. They will be more likely to stay with it, become attached to their pets as a part of themselves, and fight at our side.
5.) Educate yourselves to the problems with the other classes. Think of each class as a union. If one union is on strike, other unions join in knowing that when they have problems, other unions will reciprocate. We, moreso than unions, are more interdependant on one another and face the same challenges. Their unanswered fixes directly affect us. Their bugged fixes directly affect us, and their bandaids make our own wounds worse. Think of what you can do for other classes to help them get fixed, and they'll do the same for us.
6.) Educate others. If you see someone spreading falsehoods about Creature Handling on the boards, correct them nicely. The players are not the enemy, and its easy to misunderstand another class, especially one as visible as ours. Let others know how our current and upcoming problems will directly affect their gameplay, and how their voices can help to preserve the game not only for us, but for them.
and finally
7.) Bring on the demonstrations. I'm sorry I couldn't complete the lead for a sit-in on Anniversary Night, but my planning was rather interupted by having to shut down my account. It's still something we need to do though. Organize demonstrations at starports, POI's, and other visible areas. Invite not only people to bring out their big pets, but their durnis, their bagerasets, and everything in between. Let people know that CH's of all levels of ability, and this involves non-CH pet owners as well, need our issues resolved. Just remember, your pets cannot directly affect other people's gameplay, or a CSR can remove them. So no blocking mission terminals, shuttle droids, doorways, and things like that. In open areas though, its free for all.
We've been quiet and polite too long. It's time to kick some ass.
BlindTyldak
Wed Jun 30, 2004 6:09 pm
#4
I also invite our dear One Star Bandit to post his obviously alternate suggestions. 
Aakhperkare
Wed Jun 30, 2004 8:26 pm
#5
We have been quite to long. I am not saying that the complaining start en masse. But I think we've been ignored long enough. Having been nerfed for the sake of the community and for that dreaded word, "pokemon," we are deserving of some answers at the very least, which is all I was really asking for anyways. I am going to start by emailing and sending PM's to red names with out list of questions and go from there. I think a daily request for feedback is not too unreasonable either. I hate pointing this out, but we DO pay for this game. I don't pay to be given the cold shoulder, something they (the devs) also need to understand.
Creature Handlers have been hated and ignored long enough.
Pluto9Moon
Wed Jun 30, 2004 8:41 pm
#6
Blind that is the most perfect post I have seen in a while.
/salute
/salute
Galacium
Thu Jul 01, 2004 7:51 am
#8
Yes, but what exactly are these questions you want answered?
Please post the questions you feel need to be answered.
Aakhperkare
Thu Jul 01, 2004 7:56 am
#9
-
Pets 'poof' back into datapad occasionally. Seems more common in crowded regions, in battle, or right after dismounting a mount
- Many more creatures should spawn babies than currently are. Every creature under CL 70 should have at least a chance of spawning a baby
- The new Ranged and Special Attack commands do not appear to work. Pet must be at melee range and not in combat for special attack on demand commands to work. Pets never use ranged attacks under any conditions
- Pets that have been trained as Mounts will not follow their master
- Ongoing pathing problems (pets start moving very slowly or stop following altogether)
- Profession no longer has a niche in which it is particularly valuable. Melee players provide better tanking and damage-dealing, while Bio-Engineers sell better pets
- Some pets run away when they come under attack in battle (more common with some body types than others). May be related to creatures having different ‘ideal attack ranges’ that they constant try to move to.
- Remove pet vitality loss from factional deaths, to be consistent with normal item decay rules
- The /tellpet command sometimes will not work for players. This generally happens in isolated episodes for players, both preceeded and followed by tellpet working perfectly with the exact same pets and commands.
- Creature Handling is not an effective tool at all against a PvP-oriented combat professional. A skilled Creature Handler needs to become more of a threat as part of the Big Combat Rebalance
- Mounts need to be valuable when compared to vehicles. Current mount advantages are not enough. Suggestions include improved mounted combat, improved mount speed/gallop, improved mount selection (flying mounts?)
- No perceived advantage to using one’s Taming skills instead of just buying Bio-Engineered pets. Money is easy enough to acquire that "worse but free" does not feel very rewarding to Tamers.
- Ability to drop stored pets off either in a regular house or a specialized 'stable' structure
- Pet-calling delay of any length is not needed, as specific examples of 'exploit' behavior haven't been produced. Particularly given the fact that creatures are the only "weapon" that cannot be "equipped" while already in combat
- Rancor does not seem as powerful as has been established by Star Wars continuity. Even the weakest rancor should be a high end predator that is feared by players
- Pets need more variety in desired properties besides just Light Armor and Kinetic Resist. Varied damage types, armor piercing, and creature-unique "droid module" type functionality
- Creature Handler "Epic Quest" (similar to RIS armor) with a valuable reward (i.e. unique pet, one-time use "tame adult" ability, etc)
- Some Creature Handlers feel they should be able to see a wild creature's Difficulty level without buying the Master Scout skill
- Mount wearables/armor such as we have seen concept art for in online developer interviews
- Ability to carry items on mounts (using them as 'pack animals' as seen in the films)
- Multiple wild pets are not nearly as effective as one big one (reverse seems to be the case for BE pets)
- Ability to sell tame CH pets on vendor/bazaar
- XP rewards to successfully taming/training do not scale appropriately with creature difficulty (more XP should be awarded for taming/training more powerful creatures)
- CH-specific missions and content (i.e. 'Taming' missions) available from terminals and/or NPCs
- Ability to train pets through the commandline (i.e. /train followme Follow)
- More variety in creatures/pets in the wild. Different colors, slightly different capabilities, etc within a species
- More new pet commands/tricks
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These questions/issues that we have been waiting for since last year...
taloncard
Thu Jul 01, 2004 7:59 am
#10
All I have to say it this.
We were told no reds would visit because we were too mean and angry.
Mass exidous of CH's the forum is very inactive compared to what it used to be. (well how many times can you post the same problems over and over again?)
Tone has calmed down to docile.
still no reds.
People are actually begging at starports for mounts for the coolness factor. Why because There are so few CH's now they are hard to find. And because most BE's have given up makeing pets (which the 3 most demanded mounts can only be made NON-CH by BE's) because there is no one to tame/buy them.
Grats Devs. Mounts are 100% more Star Warsy then most of your content yet no one can get one.
7 months of a crippled profession, The combat revamp "sandbox" is projected to be started patch 10, which means we will see it live no sooner than patch 12. 4+ months away.
How many CH's will be left by then? Out of Millions of players (or was it 100,000) how many players are gonna use up 66 skill points to be weaker than a Unarmed IV Brawler in Ubese armor? (30 SP with no prerequs).
The sad thing Is I already know the answer yo will give us. It is pathetic that you can not even keep up your own promises.
The weekly round table discussions that stay 1 week too long (latest ended the 28th of june, isn't it July 1??) The 19 questions threads which lasted 1 round working as promised and now is seemingly gone again.
You are hopeing that JTL is gonna save you, IT may at that, but even then for how long till people get sick of all the bugs. You are on Publish 9 and the bugs from Open beta are still strong.
This game has so much promise, if only you would live up to it.
We were told no reds would visit because we were too mean and angry.
Mass exidous of CH's the forum is very inactive compared to what it used to be. (well how many times can you post the same problems over and over again?)
Tone has calmed down to docile.
still no reds.
People are actually begging at starports for mounts for the coolness factor. Why because There are so few CH's now they are hard to find. And because most BE's have given up makeing pets (which the 3 most demanded mounts can only be made NON-CH by BE's) because there is no one to tame/buy them.
Grats Devs. Mounts are 100% more Star Warsy then most of your content yet no one can get one.
7 months of a crippled profession, The combat revamp "sandbox" is projected to be started patch 10, which means we will see it live no sooner than patch 12. 4+ months away.
How many CH's will be left by then? Out of Millions of players (or was it 100,000) how many players are gonna use up 66 skill points to be weaker than a Unarmed IV Brawler in Ubese armor? (30 SP with no prerequs).
The sad thing Is I already know the answer yo will give us. It is pathetic that you can not even keep up your own promises.
The weekly round table discussions that stay 1 week too long (latest ended the 28th of june, isn't it July 1??) The 19 questions threads which lasted 1 round working as promised and now is seemingly gone again.
You are hopeing that JTL is gonna save you, IT may at that, but even then for how long till people get sick of all the bugs. You are on Publish 9 and the bugs from Open beta are still strong.
This game has so much promise, if only you would live up to it.
Brilyn
Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:02 am
#11
Howdy.
One-star-bandit here.
Since you asked for clarification, I'll run through it. There's not a heck of a lot to clarify really:
< I am not really concerned whether or not the devs are too busy with other things at the moment. What I am concerned with is that we get the clarification we have been waiting for with an astonishing degree of patience. >
Which, basically, means: "I don't care if you're busy doing stuff, ANSWER ME!!!!"
What are you, 4 years old?
1 star.
Brilyn
Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:03 am
#12
< Third, I am in no matter what. We dissidents have been way too nice of late. It is time we voice our ever lovin' opinions again. >
"dissidents"?
I think someone needs to go look up what the word means.
Martin Luthor King was a dissident. Ghandhi was a dissident.
You are people who want game mechanics changed, and (in some cases) fixed. You are NOT dissidents.
1 star.
Brilyn
Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:05 am
#13
< We are a small group now, simply because so many people have left this crippled profession. >
"Crippled"? Hyperbole.
1 star
< And the comabt reballance will not fix the bugs that make this class virtually unplayable by anyone who expects the game to run properly. >
"Virtually unplayable"? Hyperbole.
Whine whine whine whine.
1 star.
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