Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Weekly Roundtable Discussion (Week Ending 3-8-04)
A few things, I could think of,
1.upgradeable factories, make production faster
2 Image designers be allowed to change peoples full name
3 allow people to change races for a price, without loosing anything
4 survey droids
5 If factories can tell you when your product is done then why cant our harvesters notify us when it no longer can harvest the resource
6 elite profession/ people have a huge sense of chracter development in this game after you master your field there seems to be nothing left. Migrate master profession. examples:
A master artisan/master arcitecht make those two combined profession be allowed to make certain schematics only available to the class combination. Such as melee master bralwer/masterpikeman certain weapon only those two masteries could use, new special moves or even reduce cost of specials.
I think this would tend to have people more focused in their profession and not dabble so much.
Or open a branch of elite fields wereany combat can evolve into another class harder class that would be as difficult to master as leveling jedi.
not everyone in this game wants to be a jedi.
Make dungeons class specific. where only a certain combat class could enter like melee dungeon or a ranged combat profession/ doctor combat medic.
7. TKM i dont think they are overpowered, i think the other melee class need to be brought up to their level.
There is no need for a dr if TKM you can heal your own wounds, revive yourself from death, then buff yourself without a buff. Wow The combat or damage is not an issue with me it is the special moves they get Power boost, meditation, force of will. This is what other classes need to have or remove it.
8 allow people to cash in their weapon xp for items rare loots, weapons armor, or even be able to cash in their maxed xp into reduction in special moves. This way it adds a reason for people to continue playing after they have mastered their profession if not the game just gets boring.
9 slow the game down. macro no offense kills the game anyone can master any elite profession within a couple of days in no more than a week.
10 make it harder to progress then people would not be so willing to change their profession when they get bored Draw back is if people could not change profession so easly, i think the number of subcribers would have drastically been reduced because of lack of character development once you reach master. There feels to be no reason to move on
If you could just hammer those out in the next publish, it would be greatly appreciated.
If I could get your response on just the one issue of character development Thunderheart and why people feel there is nothing to do once they master besides running around getting schematics for another profession. Tell me if I am wrong here or how you view this issue. What can be done to resolve this? Just like Eq look how long that game has been around and what drives people to continue monster drops, loot, more health higher levels. Since this game has hardly any of this what can we do? please dont say take on each new dungeon after each publish. Ok been to the new cave now what??? I just think this game could be much better if we focued on master profession and something for them to continue on.
thanks and welcome back
LLJK_Griz wrote:
If that is true, then why did the Tusken start off as kinetic and then mysteriously change to another useless energy rifle around publish 4? Why has it taken this many months of weaponsmith and rifleman correspondents complaining before we got ANY response on this?
Thunderheart wrote:
DVader539 wrote:
Here's a real, real, real simple fix for you.
Spraystick is supposed to be Acid damage
Tusken Rifle is supposed to be Kinetic damage
T21 is supposed to be Blast damage
The correspondents and I have looked at this many times. Sorry, but its not an easychange. Damage types have a relationship to damage and by changing the damage type, it also changes the damage modifiers (numbers) and throws them out of whack. This is something Im checking to see if we can address in the weapon balance part of the larger combat balance, but I don't know what the answer might be. And in any event, concentrating on these minor things before the weapon balance isn't productive. We'll want to look at things when the combat balance is on TC.
First off, thank you TH for a response to this issue. Before you read anything else in my response, please understand I am directing no anger at you, since I know you are only fielding the question, and are not responsible for the error nor ignoring the error.
With that said, LLJK_Grizmakes a very valid point. If it's not an easy change, then how did the Tusken Rifle change it's damage type? If it was unintentional, then I'd like to meet the unlucky guy who by-mistake did the complex job of reprogramming it. If it was intentional, then I'd like to meet the doofus who went to all that complex work to screw up a weapon. Or is this a case of"if you had a dozen programmers sitting at a dozen terminals typing randomly, in twelve days they would reprogram a complex variable of this game"? 
of course that last one was a joke. I hope...
Finally, what bass-ackwards logic made the Dev team make a weapon's stats not variable-entry based? That being, a weapon's code is a string of numbers, each number representing a stat. Like 1=energy damage, 2=heat damage, 3=kinetic damage, etc. Then a seperate function takes certain numbers during a fight and puts them through an equation set to figure out damage and such. If the Dev team made it any more complex than that, then please hire my service of logical thinking. I'll sell you my services at a good price since I'd enjoy making this game better. (p.s. I'm serious.)
And while I'm posting somewhere you are reading I just want to share my concern over the trend I see of "balancing" combat with the dabblers/stackers in mind. [With what we know about the end goal of the combat changes] You are making it even *harder* to play this game at a high level for those not paying the templates you're balancing. My specific problem is that each change we've seen (made or proposed) to the brader class of pistol wielding combatants (dot changes, special changes, cert changes) have made it very difficult to play this game as a Master Smuggler without also having some or all of the pistoleer tree. Perhaps some DF moves are too powerful in the hands of a Master pistoleer, but please be concious of what you're doing to the Smugglers who are not Pistoleers if the changes you make are in the DF line and not the Pistoleer tree. Also, while I understand the Rep. Blaster cert fix in general (way overpowered for an "everyman" gun) the move as proposed leaves Smugglers out in the cold with a very limited assortment of weapons - No AR weapon at all (cept for the SR Combat which noone makes for a variety of reasons) - and no weapon cert to call our own.
Actually the game will be easier at the high end because the "invulnerable" templates will be fixed and all professions will be on a level playing field, but in any event, this is something we need to focus on after the HAM revamp goes to TC in Pub 8 and after the Combat Balance goes into effect (tentatively Pub 9 and holding...)
Thunderheart wrote:
4. The spawn rates and corpse stacking/area attack bugs are totally out of control in the front of the Geo cave. Walking in the other night I got hit for 50k damage before I could engage, and then over the weekend I went back and there was a group of 10 or 15 people in the front room intentially not looting the corpses so they would pile up instead of vansih and they could all exploit the area bugs for xp.
Please say your fixing this EVERYWHERE, not just for a specific place. This happens everywhere that mobs spawn that are highlevel.
BardoZuul wrote:
I've been playing the game for a few months now and overall i really enjoy it. There have been some bugs that upset me (system freezes right after i get buffed, losing stuff to rollbacks, etc.) but for the most part I think everyone is trying their hardest to make the game better. There is just one thing that really upsets me in this game and that is the exploiters. It really sucks to have all of the good loot spots camped 24/7 but I can live with that, assuming i have the same chance as everyone else to get some loot. There seems to be rampant use of exploits among a small portion of the players and their behavior is effecting many other people.
What really needs to be done is changing the system so these exploiters won't even be motivated to do so anymore. Too many good items are available only through loot, and this is their reason for doing so. AFK loot camping isn't really an exploit (unfortunately) and AFK macroing is perfectly legal, so it is the system that needs to be changed. Q-3PO has stated in the thread "Desired Rewards" (dev post archive) that the devs do not want to make looted items better than the best craftable ones, yet the SEA guide by Thunderheart (viewable now) says that in general, looted items are more valuable than crafted ones. Which is it? Those two ideas are contradictory. Make loot too valuable and you're going to have campers.
RIS armor is an example of a craftable item that remains rare because it is just hard to get all the components needed to craft. It is craftable, yet the pieces needed are all over the place so it is difficult to make. However, this example is not a perfect one because a lot of the components must be looted. Still, at least the mobs that drop the loot items are not located in only one (or mainly one) spot, so camping shouldn't be as much of a problem as, say, dark trooper camping for holocrons (problem was solved by the Christmas holocrons).
TH,
I know you guys are working on all of the professions "Top Ten Questions" and I know you want to get good answers to them before responding since many people were hugely underwhelmed by the first couple of sets you answered.
I would like to offer some advice, if I may...
every day that the questions go unanswered the people will expect that much better of an answer...
I know this is probably a tough call, but I really think you might consider putting these things on a schedule (as I saw in one of your posts that they are indeed not on a schedule). If the schedule is even 1 set answered every 2 weeks, please let everyoneknow some kind of eta for these... our correspondents worked very hard in polling us, collecting the data, organizing the questions, rinse - repeat
personally, I would rather be upset than have to wait a month to have the same feeling after hoping to dear life that I would not be
imho
Sartinius
1. The NERF on bleeds really sucks. I don't normally use bleed on my master sharpshooter - but when someone told me I tested it. Mind Shot 2 - ate a large chunk of my HAM bar (I use a damage sliced T21) - then I watched .. the damage done to my foe was insignificant compared to my HAM cost. Ironically, I didn't think much of it when my x-fencer's bleeds did little damage as fencers aren't known for taking things down quickly... To me - it's just not worth it to have a PVP wounding attack which causes bleeding for no damage.
2. I don't like the idea of reducing stacking effects. A master fencer/master pistoleer isn't invulnerable. "Screwing" over dabblers is a horrible direction. As are major shifts in skill trees.
3. What ever happened to the 'badges for role playing' ??
4. Please remove the 'faction' tagging on structures. It's kind of funny - the tag on the structure is static - so if you are rebel and place a structure and become imperial the tag is still rebel.
5. Hide the ACT badges from people who aren't in the same faction as you - or hide them completely till you figure this one out.
6. ACT3 - most of the rebels who I've spoken to say the story line is lame and they don't care about completing ACT3. Personally I find the 'reward' laughable as master sharpshooters don't need a 'dead eye' formula (unless it increases range)... nor do most combat professions at master level. If you remove stacking of defence mods in PvP this will be even more true. Completing ACT3 as an imperial seems to be more interesting - maybe it will kill this story line...
7. GCW - it's become very difficult to become a rebel. Consider this - where can you join the rebellion? "Hidden" Rebel Base, Moenia(?), ... (You need to run missions to join the rebellion.)
8. GCW - As imperials have access to heavy assault pets (AT-ST) which have become more and more attractive to pvp - rebels will face a loosing battle. There are many serious imbalances between rebel and imperial sides. Why does a rebel base cost the same as an imperial base? (OH WAIT they get a 30% discount for imperial bases.) Why do imperial Players get AT-STs? If it's to lure them to the dark side - why not just tell people the facts : imperial players can loot cool stuff from mission drops much more often than rebels, +6 skill mods, holocrons, jewelery, items with skill mods, very good components for crafting, ...