Development Cycle Archive

(I posted this in the original thread, but I am afraid it will get overlooked.)

Folks,

I have to step in, as Senior Producer, and take some responsibility here. The 1% decay removal was communicated to TH. We then revoked that change without telling him. He posted erroneous information to you, and it is my fault. I have apologized profusely to him, and now I am doing so to the community.

Here is why we revoked that change:

We want the GCW to be everything it can be. We want factional PvP to be fun and exciting. We understand that as players, you don't want the 1% decay. We think it is an important game mechanic in the right situations, but we want to remove it from factional battles.

Our plan is, in the next publish (NOT Imperial Crackdown, which is due soon, but the following publish) to have a factional perk that you can purchase with faction points. This perk will give you 24 hours of no decay on insured items for factional deaths.

Now as to your harsh words and attitude towards Thunderheart... I understand your frustration. But you have to know that every morning, the first person I talk to is TH, to find out about the current hot issues. He comes with us to almost all of our high-level meetings and represents "the voice of the players". He has tremendous passion for the game, and for you, and for his job. He fights for your issues, heart and soul, day in and day out. His job is to know your desires and represent them to us. And I think he does his job DAMN WELL.

It kills me to see how harsh some of the player population is towards him, because I know in no small part, we are responsible for any misinformation that you receive from him. No one is perfect, and things happen very rapidly from time to time. Miscommunications are going to occur. Don't kill the messenger. Please be forgiving, or direct your wrath towards a more guilty party (me).

Again, my deepest apologies for any misinformation regarding item decay from PvP. I take full responsibility. We love this game, as you do, and want it to be everything it can be. With your help, we will get there.

Best,

- Gary

Too many people are looking at the Imperial Crackdown as if everyone in the game is entitled to operate in the underworld as a criminal.

Let me say it as plainly as I possibly can:

Imperials should receive no bonuses unless they spend skillpoints and invest in the criminal underworld. Our invested skillpoints are our de facto Criminal Faction.

Here iswhy I have no problems at all with contraband rules affecting Imperials just as much as anyone else:

Ever since I heard about the crackdown, I've started thinking of spicing and slicing as a special type of personal buff that can be traded on a limited basis. It's like this:

Smugglers get to buff their own offensive and defensive power (weapons, armor, stats).Something unique to Smugglers is that the special buffs open you to potential penalties, including FP loss, fines, or TEFs. In addition, these buffs, moderately dangerous when used personally, can be transferred to others - though non-Smugglers assume a higher risk than Smugglers.

But that's the interesting part - users need to consider risk versus reward, especially people with no way to shield the illegal buffs from being detected. Is it worth it? Hey, that's up to the customer.

But here's the problem:

The community got addicted to the riskless buffs of slicing and spice.

Now that the Devs have ended the amnesty on contraband, non-Smugglers want to continue using the buffs they've become accustomed to enjoying, and they see anything less than the status quo as a nerf.

Or, as you wrote, San, grief.

And that is absolutely absurd. Do non-Doctors seriously complain that they can't buff themselves? Do Carabineers lament their lack of a PowerBoost skill? Do non-Artisans demand the ability to craft 33% damage powerups?

No they don't. Because it's not considered grief, it's considered in terms of "they invested skillpoints in a profession, andthey get that as an ability."

And soI have come to think ofspice and slicing. These are special Smuggler abilities, useful as personal buffs for shady folks like us. The complicated and interestingpart isthat theycan be transferred tonon-Smugglers on a limited basis- the catch being that they are MUCH more dangerous for non-Smugglers to use.

Now, would people rather have a risky option to increase their power, or no option at all to access that power? I'm inclined to believe that they'd rather have a choice.

The problem for much of the community, apparently including SanTsu, is that seven months of universal, risk-freeuse by everyone has made people feel entitled to these special powers rather thanprivileged to have access to them.

And so we have many people in the community clamoring that stripping them of "their" buffs is now GRIEF - when in fact they were using Smuggler-specific skills on borrowed time, and with no consequences, until now. Now that reality has finally sunk in and these items are finally turning into the contraband they were always supposed to be, people are crying foul. They've gotten used to them and don't want to lose them. They feel like it's a subtraction from their game when it was really an unfair and unbalancedaddition. And regardless, they still have the choice to use the buffs - but with strings attached this time.

Outlawing spice and slices on a universal basis is the furthest thing from grief. This patch should have been a rebalance that solidified the unique role of the Smuggler, and should have added some excitement and unpredictability both to Smugglers and to everyone else who chose to live an outlaw life.

Well now there's absolutely no unpredicability. Imperials avoid the risks associated with what should be universally risky buffs, and the unique flavor of the Smuggler profession has been stolen to give Imperials something to play with. What a waste of potential. What a disgrace. What a way to watch the Smuggler profession get written out of SWG.

It was a whimper, not a bang.

here's another idea to make death sting:

put some sort of talley, like a badge, on people when you examine them.

it should say how many of the other faction they have killed, and how many times they have died to the other faction.

people love badges, and it would be pretty embarassing to see you have been killed like a million times and rarely win.

then maybe you can give a special prize to someone who has a really good record, like a special uniform or badge that goes on your clothes. Rebel killer or Imp killer or something.

that's incentive not to die in pvp.