Creature Handler Archive

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Khendra wrote:

Im not gonna start a flame war with you.. I simply stated truths about what affects both of our professions in that part of the Ryyatt trail. Your pets cant hit anything thats sitting in the exploited spot. This LOS problem affects every combat profession. I'm not being rude or obscene, I'm being honest. If that scares him off, then being honest is a bad thing I guess.

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JFreeman, thank you for the time you've spent on this board of the past couple of days. I really appreciate and others do as well. Now that we're informed of the fact that you have a proposed solution to the broken pet specials, and that it's being developed, there's a possibility that we can move on to other issues and get ready to give you guys some constructive feedback when it moves to Test Center.

Part of the problem with the lack of communication is that, because no one told us a new system (or any sort of fix) was actively being developed, we were left thinking that a lack of mention of CH in patch notes meant that NO progress was being made, for whatever reason. My patience level, and my willingness to give constructive feedback, goes way up when I know that the Devs are working on their end, and I think it's the same for a lot of others.

I really look forward to seeing this new system, and hope that CHs can be given and In Concept thread or something similar to discuss it in the same way as Smugglers were allowed to discuss the new slicing system. Also, thanks again for keeping us updated on the issues with our pets CL and the "elite" pets. I was very upset when I saw my female narglatches were not "elite" anymore, but when I came on here and saw an almost immediate response from you, I feel like there's no reason to be really angry. A mistake was made, and it's going to be set right, I appreciate that. I look forward to seeing this next hotfix clear everything up, and then to dialoging with you, or whoever is in charge of the new specials system, to get those changes tested, polished, and brought live.

I'll be honest, the phrase "replacing with ... a lot of new special abilities" worries the heck out of me.

First, because we're not being asked what Specials we want and need. Failure to communicate on this could lead to a lot of unhappiness.

Second, because I'm worried that we're going to lose the Specials that were actually valuable to us in combat -- Dizzy, Knockdown, Posture-change, Strong poison, Strong disease .... we're gimped in combat now for lack of specials, and I'm worried that we're going to be as horrifly nerfed as entertainers were with something like a pet "Special" that adds 5% to our experience for ten minutes, or something equally ridiculous.

I'd love to be more optimistic about this, but our experience with the C.U. makes that hard -- we got a ton of very negative changes without any opportunity to provide input, and I'm worried about more of the same here.

USE YOUR CORRESPONDENT JFreeman, it is not too early in the process for this. It is, in fact, never too early in the process for this. If you are not going to repair the Specials that were broken, and are instead replacing them, you need to be communicating with us either directly or through our Correspondent about what these Specials are going to be like, not just dump them on us as a fait accompli and then ignore us for another two years.

Heya JFreeman! I think you're actually the first Red Name to reply in a thread started by me...
Since you have replied in this thread, how about stop trolling and post something on-topic!!!
Like... "Elite Grand Wrix will be made that are level 22 and have the same stats as the female Narglacth!"

Hehe, and great info.

I know I've heard you guys mention this idea before, so I've been excited about it for a while now. Sounds good to me...
Again, though... back on-topic!!

Elite Grand Wrix!! Hehe

Even better... what about the idea to make one pet "Elite" of the CH's choosing, or something similar, to allow a CH to have an Elite-status Pet that is not the same creature as everyone else?

May the force be with you.

And thanks for getting the next fix in so soon.


- Omadda Szool
Kauri

Jeff, while this sounds pretty interesting, it's not acceptable, because you're missing something here.

Creature pets are not just weapons to replaced when worn out or when something better comes along.

They are entities in and of themselves.

Many were tamed specifically for the special attacks they had, and now you'd have us DISPOSE of our old friends to get new ones?

CH does not work that way. Tazz has creatures onhis datapad he tamed in 2003. They have their own personalities. They are companioins, not disposable bits of code.

This is what makes CH a very special profession, with very strong RP roots.

I wish that some people at SWG would stop thinking that this is JUST a game.

That having been said, though...

The communications is greatly appreciated, as are your prompt acknowledgements of the problems of the last few days. Nothing frustrates us more than being treated like mushrooms. Thank you for stopping by and braving a hostile community to talk with us about changes.

Message Edited by Zanti-the-Bothan on 07-01-2005 02:02 PM

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JaronKai wrote:

JFreeman, thank you for
the time you've spent on this board of the past couple of days. I
really appreciate and others do as well. Now that we're informed
of the fact that you have a proposed solution to the broken pet
specials, and that it's being developed, there's a possibility that we
can move on to other issues and get ready to give you guys some
constructive feedback when it moves to Test Center.

Part of the
problem with the lack of communication is that, because no one told us
a new system (or any sort of fix) was actively being developed, we were
left thinking that a lack of mention of CH in patch notes meant that NO
progress was being made, for whatever reason. My patience level,
and my willingness to give constructive feedback, goes way up when I
know that the Devs are working on their end, and I think it's the same
for a lot of others.

I really look forward to seeing this new
system, and hope that CHs can be given and In Concept thread or
something similar to discuss it in the same way as Smugglers were
allowed to discuss the new slicing system. Also, thanks again for
keeping us updated on the issues with our pets CL and the "elite"
pets. I was very upset when I saw my female narglatches were not
"elite" anymore, but when I came on here and saw an almost immediate
response from you, I feel like there's no reason to be really
angry. A mistake was made, and it's going to be set right, I
appreciate that. I look forward to seeing this next hotfix clear
everything up, and then to dialoging with you, or whoever is in charge
of the new specials system, to get those changes tested, polished, and
brought live.

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I understand. Really
I apologize for the lack of communication recently (or...maybe a little
longer than "recently"). We've gone through a bit of a team
restructuring phase post-CU and post-RotW, assigning different
programmers, artists and designers to different sub-teams as the RotW
team and CU team came back into the general mix. Some of us are even
still moving offices (and almost everyone moved from one office to another, if that gives you any idea of the scope of this).



I'm the new Live Lead Systems Designer, for example. It's taken me a
couple weeks just to figure out what's going on (prior to this I was on
RotW, and prior to that on JtL, so I haven't been "in the loop" much
with regard to the live game or combat upgrade).



We also have a new live producer and a new creative director (who still
needs to pack up everything he owns and move to Austin!).



Communication will improve, and so will the quality level of our publishes.



Thanks for hanging in there through this one! May there never be another like it...

P.S. If you don't reply with an ontopic post, I'll report yah to Garva!!!

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JFreeman wrote:

I understand. Really I apologize for the lack of communication recently (or...maybe a little longer than "recently"). We've gone through a bit of a team restructuring phase post-CU and post-RotW, assigning different programmers, artists and designers to different sub-teams as the RotW team and CU team came back into the general mix. Some of us are even still moving offices (and almost everyone moved from one office to another, if that gives you any idea of the scope of this).

I'm the new Live Lead Systems Designer, for example. It's taken me a couple weeks just to figure out what's going on (prior to this I was on RotW, and prior to that on JtL, so I haven't been "in the loop" much with regard to the live game or combat upgrade).

We also have a new live producer and a new creative director (who still needs to pack up everything he owns and move to Austin!).

Communication will improve, and so will the quality level of our publishes.

Thanks for hanging in there through this one! May there never be another like it...

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So are you "in charge" of Creature Handler now?

Seriously, thanks for the communication and the information. It's a fantastic weight off my shoulders to finally have some concrete future to see in Creature Handler instead of mere hope, and I'm sure a lot of the people here feel the same way.

I realize that the pet level issue, then the elite issue, were major "stop" type bugs and so they got immediate attention (thank you!), but the things like pet pathing/speed/getting stuck in combat and specials and spawning problems are nearly as bad since we deal with them every day.

We now know what's happening with specials... is there any chance you could hit our Top 5 list/bug list and give a brief update on what's happening (if anything) with those other issues? Like what we can expect? I hate to seem greedy given the amount of communication we got today, but I figured I'd try prodding just a bit.

Thanks again!

Message Edited by Ko-aIri on 07-01-2005 05:03 PM

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JFreeman wrote:

I understand. Really I apologize for the lack of communication recently (or...maybe a little longer than "recently"). We've gone through a bit of a team restructuring phase post-CU and post-RotW, assigning different programmers, artists and designers to different sub-teams as the RotW team and CU team came back into the general mix. Some of us are even still moving offices (and almost everyone moved from one office to another, if that gives you any idea of the scope of this).

I'm the new Live Lead Systems Designer, for example. It's taken me a couple weeks just to figure out what's going on (prior to this I was on RotW, and prior to that on JtL, so I haven't been "in the loop" much with regard to the live game or combat upgrade).

We also have a new live producer and a new creative director (who still needs to pack up everything he owns and move to Austin!).

Communication will improve, and so will the quality level of our publishes.

Thanks for hanging in there through this one! May there never be another like it...

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This is absolutely fantastic to hear. Thanks and have a great holiday weekend and pass it on!

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JFreeman wrote:

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Gimpynoob wrote:
You have faith in the developers???

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I find your lack of faith...disturbing.

The fix for this just passed QA on Test Center.

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Wow. You honor us by posting that you indeed are reading. My faith in you sir is increasing rapidly. This will go a long way to help CH morale. As to Gimpynoob don't be too hard on him. Just force choke him till he turns blue should be fine

/bow to JFreeman

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Zanti-the-Bothan wrote:

Jeff, while this sounds pretty interesting, it's not acceptable, because you're missing something here.

Creature pets are not just weapons to replaced when worn out or when something better comes along.

They are entities in and of themselves.

Many were tamed specifically for the special attacks they had, and now you'd have us DISPOSE of our old friends to get new ones?

CH does not work that way. Tazz has creatures on his datapad he tamed in 2003. They have their own personalities. They are companioins, not disposable bits of code.

This is what makes CH a very special profession, with very strong RP roots.

I wish that some people at SWG would stop thinking that this is JUST a game.

That having been said, though...

The communications is greatly appreciated, as are your prompt acknowledgements of the problems of the last few days. Nothing frustrates us more than being treated like mushrooms. Thank you for stopping by and braving a hostile community to talk with us about changes.

Message Edited by Zanti-the-Bothan on 07-01-2005 02:02 PM

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The thing to look at (I think) is this...
We'll be able to assign these specials to our pets and thus can maintain the role (Or type of pet) that we have gotten to know our pets to be.

So, if we want one pet to be the same as it was before these changes, it's most likely we'll be able to train it similar skills to equate to what it was like beforehand.
So, your tank can be a tank, your fast ranged pet can be your fast ranged pet... not that I know what they have planned for sure... but the role-play aspect should still be there 100% and now we could actually steer things to be a little more like what we wanted (possibly).

Let's face it... we've all had a huge pet that we wished was truly a large monstrous tank, but was less effective in that role than other pets...
Maybe with this new system, we can make sure that pet is more akin to that role.

Time will tell, but I don't think that this new system would spell the end of our pets' personalities and our own personal attachments to them... it could actually strengthen those aspects.

*points to thread's title*


- Omadda Szool
Kauri

May the force be with you.

Well, that, along with all the recent events (Fan Fest, Trade Shows, etc) that have kept you all busy, but it's nice to have you back and participating in the game.