Creature Handler Archive

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DaBudo2 wrote:

Let me play devil's advocate here and defend the devs. Seriously. Let me finish before you tar and feather me Though, I will say first that I do believe thatCH is very low on the list of priorities that the devs are working on. I was at Fanfest, and let me tell you that Iwas not at all reassured bythe kind of answers I heard in the CH/Scout/Rangerforum (mostly scout and ranger). Pretty much it was a lot of wait, maybe, we don't know. I left that forum in frustration shaking my head thinking, Oh man, nothing is going to be happening with CH any time soon. Good dev defense so far, huh? Well, here is what I did leave Fanfest with.

- The devs are just as passionate about SWG as we are. They love this game. As far as I know, they all play the game. They take great pride in what they've accomplished. I had the opportunity to briefly talk with or sit in on conversations with a few devs including TH (who is a heck of nice guy by the way - no horns or tail). They want this game to be the best it can be, and they want us to have a truly fun playing experience.

- So much time has been spent on fixing jedi because so many people want to be jedi. I don't doubt that the majority, if not great majority, of players wanted (still want) to be jedi. That's why the holocron approach didn't work. The game practically ground to a halt because so many people were grinding professions. Holocron was a mistake, and the issue is not should it have been anticipated but that the devs took steps to fix it. IMHO, jedi became the priority because the SWG community wanted it to be a priority. Unfortunately, that meant that many things had to be put on the back burner. Combat rebalance and CH in particular are a couple of those things. I don't like it a bit, but we can't have our cake and eat it too. No Great Conspiracy. No one hates CH. Other things are higher on the list is all.

- JTL as priority? Well, if Fanfest was a fair representation of the SWG community, I can only say that most people want it. It was enthusiastically received to say the least. I think they should have done rebalance first, but the devs feel it's too important a part of Star Wars *shrug* But again - no Great Conspiracy. No one hates CH. Other things are higher on the list.

- Bugs. Most people may not realize just howgreatan effort is expended on fixing them.Should there be so many bugs? Well, I'm not a programmer. The game seems incredibly complex to me, though. And I refer you all to Jeff Wood's rant on programmer issues, that'll make you pause and think. So, why aren't the CH bugs fixed? I don't know. A combination of priorities and complexities is my guess. But it's certainly not due to any Great Conspiracy or because anyone hates CH.

- The CH Nerf (actually Nerfs). To be fair, if you were CH then you have to admit something needed to be done. I won't argue that the wrong thing was done. I definitely feel that it was ill-considered and poorly implemented. But the devs genuinely believed that combat rebalance would happen shortly after. There were a lot of things said that the devs believed to be true at the time they were said. But someone made the decision that priorities had to be changed and man power shifted, whatever. No malice was intended, however, and certainly no deceit was intended.

Communication could be a whole lot better. I don't know why the things that were said at Fanfest have not been said here on the boards. At least as far as the explanations of why the devs are doing what they're doing and why some things are difficult to do. It wouldn't makepeople feel any better about where CH is on the list of priorities, but I think people would at least realize that it's ridiculous to think that anyone is out to "get" CH. Most of the other professions feel they need fixing just as much as we CH do. And for me the issue is not should there be so many things that need fixing but that the devs truly want to fix them and make SWG the best game ever.

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You knowDaBudo, I know several people who attended FanFest and they allcame back with the exact same impression.The devs do care, more than many people realize. I don't think many players of SWG appreciate that fact. Great post.

DaBudo,

I cannot disagree with what you stated in the perspective that you stated it. Good post.

(Jerry Springer you know I love you but coming)...

If a certain group of people have hurdles that are higher than other peoples to cross then things are unfair.

CH XP as a combat profession has no AOE attack abilities left to get faster CH XP Quicker like Fanshot or other AOE Combat Specials.

CH cannot solo Material with one Elite Profession as others can.

CH was Combat Revamped 10 months ago. That was not a necessary part of the nerf (in some peoples opinion) but most signed on believing that the CR/CB/CU was to soon follow. It has not.

I cannot argue against bugs because that seems very correct that all have bugs.

Most of your argument is valid if one forgets the perspective of the CH who has in fact been CBed already.

DaBudo2:

Great Post, I was planning to say something very similar...

In that people may not realize this, but anything STAR WARS is not a just a job to almost everyone who is involved. These people care more about this game then we ever will. Most of them don't really even see it as a job most of the time.

CH will be restored when the combat balance hits... that's if the combat balance hits. Well, I think the devs realized the same thing we all did that after the Hologrind started this game was and is in serious troubble. For all those that were becommnig Jedi they were finding it was severly broken, and since that is 95% of all players goal when the glowy baseball bat info and other problems combined with the Hologrind aftermath, they had to make a decision.

The decision was to fix Jedi and make a different/ better / less destructive path to get there.

It took a whole lot of work to get there, it is more interesting, you still have a huge grind, but now it's grinding what you want instead of what they want.

JTL:
They also made the decision that JTL was needed to save the game, or possibly it was decided above them to do it for $$, it is unknown, but will be needed all the same.

This game has been out of wack for way to long, but with no players left a CBR would do no good.

Why do I say CH will be repaired in the CBR? Because most of this game is fighting/ killing animals, solo groups and other such non-sense is part of what is killing this game. They must make rancors tough again, and other animals will need to be beefed up as well, or unchanged but all others will be brought down.

On a side note, if the later is the case, we have suffered long with our Gimped pets will be at an advantage knowing how to deal with things much more powerful than we are and getting by for so long, when we are all on an equal playing field, it will be interesting.

I propose this, if we can tone down our forum for a few weeks or even another month, what is that compared to all the time we have waited that maybe we can get Tiggs back for another chance.

And maybe, just maybe we can re-open the communication lines. I think too, we must make them realize that we understand that their plans may change, I think that is one of their biggest hang ups. That they make a statement then it changes, and they get the YOU LYING &^%&^ you said such and such. And at the time that was the plan, but it either wasn't techincally possible or something else is more of a priority.

If we can do that then they will talk more, infact I know from early TH posts that he would rather it be that way. IF we can do that VERT or someone can talk to them or if they don't want to I will do it, not that I am anybody, but I am not too bad at disarming and or negotiations.

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SkyPreacher1 wrote:

I don't think FanFest was a fair representation of the SWG community. How many people from europe made it there, Japan, Canada, not many. You have 300,000 subscribers and what 10 thousand maybe made it to fanfest. That's not a good representation, that isn't even 10%, that is a gross assumption because the ones that made that effort are probably diehard SW fans.

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Gman,

I am sure the tone of all the forums could be better. I am sure that things in time may get better for some. But if pets get weaker, CH by default gets weaker.

If the rancor were to be beefed then CH will be nerfed. There is a very cyclical nature to nerfdom because CH's can control what appears to be half the content as their weapons. Tie that in with a second profession and the game goes back to the other end of the spectrum and cries of Nerf CH start anew.

Frankly, SWG needs to go class based. That ends all arguments of stacking. CH being too powerful because of secondary skills. Although keeping the surrender skills could still be left. OR Simply allow only one elite profession.

Again, the biggest hang up is not that plans changed but plans changed halfway into a Combat Revamp that (again not sure I need to remind everyone) had already started December of 2003.

I am not stating it as any conspiracy theory but at very best poor judgement. Proper planning prevents poor performance. It is the 5P rule. There are other rules for creating a MMORPG as well. Develop it first as an exciting FPS RPG. If there is enough action to keep one person entertained then all you have to do is change the monster library to make it harder for the group limit but still challenging.

As an Ex-Dungeonmaster, I say Ex because I play infrequently now, the first thing you learn is that creating the challenge to be just right is difficult. If you have 4 first level people then a group of enemies should contain somewhere between 2-6 of equal level opponents. As things progress that narrows down to 1 at times. A dragon played by a good DM will indeed kill the party by constantly flying to avoid getting killed. Especially if it is an intelligent dragon. SWG did a good job of trying to make all ranges equal to avoid this mechanism of insta-defeat for players.

What I see has changed for CH through reading is that CH in and off itself is no more exciting than having your own buff for free (or in the case of BE pets many credits). How can CH remain viable and unnerfed after the CU? Without the Combat Documents we cannot know for certain. Sidhartha says,(on guitars) If the string is too tight it will snap and if it is too loose it will not play. There is a very fine line in this profession for playing perfect.

Taming works with the exceptions that some rares are too rare. There is definitely a dining experience analogy here, a Medium rare steak should be pink and a rare steak will be close to raw and just seered. Some CH find the rares a little hard to swallow. It is a bloody mess.

PvE works if you have a decent secondary. No need to go into that further.

PvP one is better to have two stacking templates.

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Vertexon wrote:

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SkyPreacher1 wrote:

I don't think FanFest was a fair representation of the SWG community. How many people from europe made it there, Japan, Canada, not many. You have 300,000 subscribers and what 10 thousand maybe made it to fanfest. That's not a good representation, that isn't even 10%, that is a gross assumption because the ones that made that effort are probably diehard SW fans.

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Couldn't the same argument be made for people who post on these forums, though? An extremely important minority to use as a "bellweather" for the population at large, but a minority... and a hardcore one at that.

Very true, Vert.

I doubt JTL's priority was assignedjust because of the reaction at FanFest. The mainstream gaming media has been railing SWG ever since release due to the lack of space travel. Until all the media outletsstarted recently gushing about how JTL "will finally bring the missing 50% of the Star Wars experience," I couldn't pick up a magazine or click on a website without seeing yet another article in which people made fun of the lack of space travel.

Good point. Also very true.

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Sky your first mistake was using a hockey anology, you lost 60% interest in your post. Just Kidding, but you don't really think as insane as you type do you?

Message Edited by GMANHNC on 09-25-2004 03:59 PM