CUEmu - Thread Posts

Omegaplex

Mon Mar 22, 2004 4:28 pm

Top-end Master CH babies are not only lacking in variety - there are only a half dozen tamable pets in the entire CL51-70 (read: Master CH level)void - but they're also so rare that finding them is far more a chore than a pleasure. Making them rare is one thing, but there's a difference between hard work and an exercise in futility. There's nothing fun about hunting for weeks on end with no success - hell, there's really no fun in hunting for weeks on end WITH success. I found a Swamp Stalker baby after two days of searching - they're not high level, but the principal is the same. From what I understand, I got lucky. I know their haunts, and I hit them all a dozen times over those two days.

I'm currently trying to find a Great Plains Stalker, and brother, they don't exist on my server. I've got a memo going around on the Valcyn board, and nobody has yet replied who has seenANY GPS since BEFORE player cities came along. Player cities RUIN spawn zones - major gripe #2.

Gripe #3: multiple pets aren't as useful as one big pet. Two level 30s are NOT as good as one level 60 (if you can find one...), and that's a fact. CL needs to be raised when multiple pets are concerned. Max CL70 for a single pet? Fine. If you use two pets, let's have Max CL45 for each, and if you use three, let's have Max CL35 each (these being Master CH levels). At least then you've got some comparable power levels, and it makes it more interesting, and a genuine toolbox (like riflemen or pistoleers choosing the right weapon for the moment) rather than just higher/bigger/moreCL. The day the devs took the multiple CL rules out they ruined multiple pets.

Finally, pet vitality makes me scared to actually *use* my pets. My two favorite pets are a Plains Hunter and Swamp Stalker - one of them is literally irreplaceable, and the other is so hard to find that I don't want to have to repeat it. But shouldn't I be able to enjoy them? Using any pets I give a damn about in pvp is most certainly out - they drop so fast my head spins - but even using them in pve is extremely unnerving. I think pet vitality should be done away with. Pet taming & BE business isn't going to drop off without pet vitality - right now, BE's have a huge number of options in sales, and CH's always want new pets, anyway. Vitality is needless, and diminishes the fun of having pets.

So, to sum it up... TOPFIVE CH ISSUES:

#1) High level babies too rare, and there aren't enough types of them. SOLUTION: More baby spawns and/or more baby variety in the 40+ range, and especially in the 50+ range. Balance between effort & reward is essential (they shouldn't be handouts), but that balance is currently HORRIBLYskewed towards effort.

#2) Related to #1, high level babies may not be spawning because of player cities ruining spawn zones. SOLUTION: Cap player cities ata number lower than the current 20, for starters, and make spawn zones function regardless of cities. You want to live in BFE? Fine - you risk that Frenzied Graul nest appearing in your front yard - but that's the breaks living on the frontier.

#3) Multiple pet usefulness is currently zip. SOLUTION: Alter the CL's to be different when using 1, 2, or 3 pets. I propose CL70 for one, CL45 each for two, and CL35 each for three.

#4) If the last few patches have shown anything about pets, it's that they go down hard and fast (and easily). Pets aren't a danger in pvp at all (and that's fine, to a degree), but their vitality makes using them too risky to use even in high-level pve, anyway. As hard as they can be to find, nobody risks it. All risk + no reward = useless.

#5) The ongoing pathing issues, from pets poofing to running away from battle to following crooked to stopping at server lines. This problem has been going since day one, and no offense to the SWG team, but FIRE the pathing dev - he's had a year to work on this, and obviously can't figure it out. Replacement time.

That about sums up my only real concerns with CH. Fix those, and this will a highly functional and not-at-all overly powerful profession.

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Trazco, Valcyn Server
Master Combat Medic
Master Doctor
Master Medic

headsupsevenup

Mon Mar 22, 2004 4:44 pm

#2

i have an issue....

CH xp takes way too long to amass, IMO.

i love this profession, don't get me wrong, but the only way to get through it at a reasonable pace is to either run around the wild doing the tame, train and release schtick, or take a level 10 pet on a rancor hunt. both are a pain.

Omegaplex has a very good point about multiple pets being useless. i worked my butt off to get Management 3, and what do i have to show for it? the same amount of CH xp, only i get to use 2 pets now

. honestly, you should getDOUBLE the rewards for usingDOUBLE the pets (makes sense to me, but then again, i could be crazy).

anyways, that's just my opinion.

Orralikerri
Rebel Warrant Officer I
SilverMoon Monk of Valor
Silverfist Brigade
Teras Kasi Master / Novice Commando
HULK SMASH!

GreenStok

Mon Mar 22, 2004 4:49 pm

#3

Well, I had 2 issues I cared about, 1, to make pets more useful for pvp and 2, take away the 40 percent harvest meat penalty that CH;s get. One was mentioned, one wasn't.

The pathing issues? They are just as bad in EQ, so perhaps that is not as easy as you may think.

My pets don't run off. They don't poof either. My oldest, pre December pets though do not do as well. They still work like they used to.

______________________________
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GreenStok, Master Bio Engineer, proprieter of Green Acres
Shop on Lowca server, Naboo, Theed
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Omegaplex

Thu Mar 25, 2004 8:23 pm

#4

Well, you may be right - pathing may be a tougher nut to crack than meets the eye.

It's usually just nuisance problems, but sometimes, they're REALLY a pain. Now that pets can be called without tents, it's somewhat mitigated.

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Trazco, Valcyn Server
Master Combat Medic
Master Doctor
Master Medic

SioBabble

Fri Mar 26, 2004 7:21 am

#5

Holocron admitted to the CH community that the devs simply had no idea what to do about the pathing issues back in August.

The situation can't have gotten any better.

Tazz vonMannstein Baron-Administrator of Corellia, master navigator of Corellia, captain of the Gregarious Gurreck

Sio Babble MBH/MCH/Cabana Boy; master of Tyson, the GNORT OF DEATH

Jeffn Akbar Nerfed from here to Lok MD/MCM

Zanti Agaesia Bothan MBE, 12 point Master Chef, Havoc Squadron Ace pilot

ByygPapa

Fri Mar 26, 2004 6:17 pm

#6

factional pets follow you like youre holding a case of beer in one hand and Carmen Electra's phone number in the other, so I dont understand the pet pathing issue; if they can do it why cant critters?

Message Edited by ByygPapa on 03-26-2004 08:18 PM

ASSAULT BOWCASTER: BECAUSE YOU ONLY HAVE ONE ASS TO RISK...

Draccuss

Fri Mar 26, 2004 7:35 pm

#7

That's is a good point! I've never had a Stormtrooper disappear on me ever! Nor have they stopped at a server line or given me any grief at all. Wonder what the difference is?

Anyway, onto the original post. You have some very good points and I agree with them even though I don't see the multiple pet thing ever changing. One of my biggest gripes is the shear lack of any good tameables out there. We used to have an AR1 75% Kinetic Graul Mauler and now what do we have??? Nothing anywhere close to the tanking ability the GM used to have, even at master. I find myself only ever using my BE'd Gurreck because his stats are so much better than any creature I can tame.This fact alonehas really ruined this profession for me. It's one thing to fight with pets but, for me, an equal amount of fun used to come out of taming the higher level creatures. Now that is such a choreand I just don't find it worthwhile.

What really sucks is I remember when I first started (release +2 months) seeing all these really cool gigantic creatures out there and just being envious of the person controlling that pet but nowI seesomeone withthe same type of creature and I think what a poor sap for using a buttload of skill points for nothing. That is how much the profession has degraded.

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Draccus - Chilastra Server
Swordsman, Fencer, Tera Kasi
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