Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Former MCH speaks out -- On many things.
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RobertGhent
Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:56 pm
#14
Good posts everyone!
This is what I like about the CH community. When the chips are down we come together!
My post was oneof frustration. But I do believe we can do some good with rational discussions such as this. When I made the statement regarding pay to play privileges I was trying to show both sides of the view. As a developer they have certain rights regardless of how we feel. Although the game is flawed in many respects it can be fixed over a period of time. Please do try and remember that SOE has to get approval for a great majority of the concepts from the "Ranch".
In my heart I do believe the creature rebalancing was a precursor to the jedi package. Basically, jedi progression would have been slower than the company expected. In order to facilitate its incorporation into the game the developers realized they could simply restructure what they started with. And hey, it worked. Not to mention itallowed us to progress thru our chosen professions at a better rate. I'm not saying it didn't have its negative points such as CH's being gutted but when your running a business you put the needs of the few after the collective whole. So in short, we got the axe.
Many of you have spoken about the general lack of communication. Well, it is extremely frustrating. As a potential MCH to be "again"I know how hard it is to wait.When you are use to seeing your Rancor drop players then suddenlybecoming bantha fodder its infuriating.Those who have rare pets have been afraid to even pull them out for display purposes due to the Creature Penalties (Loss of Vitality) or Jedi takeovers.
Onto the jedi situation... Now this is a touchy subject for many people. For those of you who have read the extended universe material you know there were more jedis living than was shown in the films. Some would be quick to refer to the Dark Jedi Master Joruus C'baoth, even though he was a clone. Just because a jedi could not be detected via the force DOES NOT MEAN THEY DID NOT EXIST. Yoda was hiding on Degobah (excuse spelling) because of the dark energies being able to cloak him from detection. Many other jedi masters in the past have used this same technique to escape detection such as Master Thon (master to Nomi Sunrider). For those who have read the novel on Darth Maul one of the first things taught to him was the ability to conceal himself. Jedis have also been trained to conceal themselves should a mission call for it.
From a game stand point jedi characters have caused several problems for the CH community. I've seen pets belonging to my friends just take off to fight a battle for a jedi. This is a serious gaming problem which needs to be resolved. For creature handlers starting at novice making the way to master there should be modifier determining how great the risk of failure is for the jedi. Novice would result in greater risk of recruitment while at Master it would severly hinder them from taking large pets into combat.
While I am on the subject... What is up with visibility? Fighting a rancor with a lightsaber adds to visibility? Whats it gonna do send a transmission to Vader via its commlink? I THINK NOT! Furthermore my detection statements above should clear this up. Using force powers or lightsabers on mobs would not result in visibility of any kind. Many would argue the tremors in the force... Horsepucky... If your pulling from the force on a place like Dathomir thats riddled in darkside energies from the Nightsisters I find it highly unlikely your gonna be detected. Common sense goes right out the window!
Folks, I am not one to rant. But lets face it. Its their game, on their time table, with our money. Arguing, complaining, bickering will get nothing done but a big fat banlist for our best MCHs... I'd rather we keep our fellow CH's and wait for some signs of hope. Listen to me, the optimist! hahahaha! Lets just take it upon ourselves to hold our heads up high and tell the rest of the community to have their weapons ready... We aren't leaving!
Nuttynoah
Thu Oct 07, 2004 10:34 pm
#15
ye well....?
NO CAPTAIN, I SEE NO SHIPS JUST HARDSHIPS
**I once ask a group if thay wanted a hand "as im a creature handler" thier reply was: no thanks we are in a hurry**
Roicou
Fri Oct 08, 2004 9:39 am
#16
KzinKiller wrote:
Wow ... that's an interesting take on what happened with Jedi, but I know very few people who perceive it that way. The 90% of our guild/city who fled the game in the last three months perceive it very differently. From our perspective, the devs completely caved to a vocal minority, junked the entire design of the game, and made it possible for FAR more people to become Jedi than the design of the game could accomodate, throwing pretty much every system into chaos and compouding the problems created with the hologrind fiasco.
Time will tell if they were right in trying to 'save' this game by just handing it over to Jedi, but I'm a skeptic.
Well, I can say this about this subject. Have any of those people tried getting Jedi under the new system? If so, I really think people would start changing their minds as to how many Jedi there are going to be. To be honest I really don't think there are going to be that many and here is why.
I did the holo grind thing. I ground out 22 professions. When the new Jedi system came into place, I was awarded 4 out of the 6 branches required. I was all excited that I only needed 2 more branches. But then reality hit me smack in the face. What that really meant is that I had to max out my unarmed experience 40 times. And I was given 2/3 of what I needed to finish. Someone starting from scratch would need to max out their weapons experience (that is for an elite profession) 120 times. That is the equivilent to mastering an elite professon almost 40 times. I have been grinding like crazy just to get those 2 branches I need and I'm down to needing to max out only 3 more times. But I'm already so burnt on it that I can barely bring myself to do it any more. I can't even imagine how I would feel if I still had to do it 80 more times. There is no way. And mind you that is just the very beginning of the grind. Once you get Padawan the real grind starts. I just can't imagine that many people are really going to go through that pain just to have the opportunity to get ganked by BH gank squads and end up with -2 million jedi experience.
So I think a lot of people just havn't realized yet exactly how difficult it really is to get Jedi now.
I still have hope for the CH profession with the combat revamp (assuming it ever happens).
Tstorm
Fri Oct 08, 2004 10:09 am
#17
I have mixed feelings about Jedi. It's neat seeing Jedi as they're central in the movies (and several Star Wars games and books) and have that "wow" effect. On the other hand, it does seem out of whack actually seeing someone wielding a lightsaber in this time period.
It was probably an error to put Jedi in game at all, but the damage was already done there. Hologrinding was the result of the system the Devs put in place to keep Jedi rare, but it wasn't working and I agree with the notion that it needed to be removed.
The new system still permits Jedi but is in a ways harder than the previous system as there are time based constraints built into the system plus a lot of grinding (if you're really bent on being a Jedi). On the plus side, the new system provides content for us mere mortals through the Aurelian quests and while some of them make me cringe a bit, Aurelia as a whole seems to have a neat story from phase to phase and many of the quests are interesting.
I think the Devs had little choice. They couldn't leave the system as-is as Hologrinding was impacting lots of professions negatively and getting rid of Jedi altogether would have created an uproar.
I do think Jedi could use more tweaking/balancing to keep them in the shadows as well as not turning them into the "must have" template. With all the changes to Jedi lately, I would expect to see some balance passes on them in the future to keep them in check.
It was probably an error to put Jedi in game at all, but the damage was already done there. Hologrinding was the result of the system the Devs put in place to keep Jedi rare, but it wasn't working and I agree with the notion that it needed to be removed.
The new system still permits Jedi but is in a ways harder than the previous system as there are time based constraints built into the system plus a lot of grinding (if you're really bent on being a Jedi). On the plus side, the new system provides content for us mere mortals through the Aurelian quests and while some of them make me cringe a bit, Aurelia as a whole seems to have a neat story from phase to phase and many of the quests are interesting.
I think the Devs had little choice. They couldn't leave the system as-is as Hologrinding was impacting lots of professions negatively and getting rid of Jedi altogether would have created an uproar.
I do think Jedi could use more tweaking/balancing to keep them in the shadows as well as not turning them into the "must have" template. With all the changes to Jedi lately, I would expect to see some balance passes on them in the future to keep them in check.
KzinKiller
Fri Oct 08, 2004 10:50 am
#18
The problem is that no matter how long it takes or how much grinding is involved, if they actually make Jedi 'worth' having, then there will be an ever-increasing population of Jedi far beyond what the game was designed to handle. There is no mechanism to remove Jedi, only mechanisms to slow the rate at which they're added. This means an inevitable, if slow, population growth of Jedi. There's already too many, and in six months there will be wayyyyy too many, it's inevitable in this design.
Until there's a mechanism to actually remove existing Jedi and hard-cap their population, every other class in this game is doomed to be made irrelevant by the Jedi Plague. No MMORPG can survive a god-class, and that's exactly where SWG is headed.
Until there's a mechanism to actually remove existing Jedi and hard-cap their population, every other class in this game is doomed to be made irrelevant by the Jedi Plague. No MMORPG can survive a god-class, and that's exactly where SWG is headed.
Gyorgy
Sat Oct 09, 2004 3:00 am
#19
There is a well known mechanism to keep jedi population more or less low... The good ol' perma-death. 
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