Development Cycle Archive
Thread: In-Concept Open Discussion (6-28-04)
TomarDicol
Thu Jun 24, 2004 10:23 pm
#118
Have to say I am agreement with you on those four points, Dandy.
It really is quite an annoyance seeing 90% of armored players wearing Composite Armor.
In the EU of Star Wars, there rarely are bounty hunters/mercs wearing similiar/exact same armor/tunic/etc.
Perhaps the Dev Team Modellers can whip up three to four new designs, give them the same stats and value as composite, and then toss them ingame?
It really is quite an annoyance seeing 90% of armored players wearing Composite Armor.
In the EU of Star Wars, there rarely are bounty hunters/mercs wearing similiar/exact same armor/tunic/etc.
Perhaps the Dev Team Modellers can whip up three to four new designs, give them the same stats and value as composite, and then toss them ingame?
Lagon_Flood
Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:22 am
#119
Hey Thunderheart,
I just want to start out by saying to you and everyone at SOE happy anniversary tomorrow. Been here since that day. The question I bring you, is one that I can't find a direct answer to on the forums. Will the combat balance make at least the Elite Combat Professions have a fair chance against one another. I can't for the life of me win a battle against a Teras Kasi Master with either Master Pistoleer and Rifelman. I do love this game after one year, but I dont want to change my charachter jsut so I can compete on the PvP field. Sue, I'm lucky to get one or two hist in out of 30, but then I get knockdown and that's all she wrote. That just doesn't seem right.
Sincerly,
Logan Flood
I just want to start out by saying to you and everyone at SOE happy anniversary tomorrow. Been here since that day. The question I bring you, is one that I can't find a direct answer to on the forums. Will the combat balance make at least the Elite Combat Professions have a fair chance against one another. I can't for the life of me win a battle against a Teras Kasi Master with either Master Pistoleer and Rifelman. I do love this game after one year, but I dont want to change my charachter jsut so I can compete on the PvP field. Sue, I'm lucky to get one or two hist in out of 30, but then I get knockdown and that's all she wrote. That just doesn't seem right.
Sincerly,
Logan Flood
john_p
Fri Jun 25, 2004 5:56 am
#120
Firstly, apologies if this idea has been posted before.
The non-player cities in SWG are far too small and do little for "immersion" (first and last time I use that word in this post). I think it's a shame that to go shopping for items, that I have to fly to a player city or a random house in the middle of nowhere to check a vendor that may or may not be stocked.
The subject of apartments within cities has been brought up before, and I won't go over it again. I think it would be a fantastic idea.
Expanding on that a little, why not implement player purchasable lots in cities? For both apartments AND shops. These would be rented instead of deeded. You have walk-in shops on the ground floor and these could have one or more vendors, just like the current system. You could have a large number of apartment blocks in even a smaller city.Maybe have workshops, which don't let you place a vendor but do let you store lots of items.
There are problems with availability, granted. I'm sure a well-located shop in Coronet would have sky-high rents, whilst a small apartment in the back end ofDearic mightremain empty.But this is the way it should be. Players could be guaranteed the lot for two weeks, then it becomes open to bidding against other players, with the highest bidder getting the lot (some system of safe storage would be needed for the evictee though! wouldn't fancy moving 250 items + a vendor with short notice)
Taking thisa step further, how about creating a new "planet" that is just one very large city?Coruscant maybe. A dedicated city like this should have no problems supporting a large number of shops and apartments.
It would not need to be the full 15 sq km that other planets are, but enough to support many shops and apartments.
The city could have spawns of NPCs replacing creatures; thieves, muggers, a militia. You could even have areas of different prosperity and risk; a low-rent area of small apartments and low-profile vendors and traders like smugglers and gambling dens.. you're always advised to bring a weaponif you go there .. or conversely, a beautiful high-rent area with lots of parks, fountains and shops ..
Hey, it's just like Sim City! 
Mokoto
Fri Jun 25, 2004 6:30 am
#121
Not sure where to post this, so ill just put it here. This is in reguards to the boards lacking a poll option. I dont know if any one else talked about this yet, if they did i apologize. I think a system to set up polls would be most beneficial for the public to state their views on an issue. Quickly seeing howplayersfeel about an issuewould help DEVs in their decision making. I thought SOE would eventualy bring a poll system into the boards. Perhaps they just for got about it. Anywayjust an idea.
Krebsy
Fri Jun 25, 2004 6:39 am
#122
Market traders.
new type of vendor. You stock it with Items, set it up as a vendor on any street anywhere. Then it packs up and returns back to your inventory the next dawn.
So, we could set up markets and shopping areas within cities. (limit the amount that they can store though, for large items and amounts of items you'll still need your shop.
The imperials can scan them for contraband, smugglers can get bonuses to keep the illegal goods hidden from imperial prying eyes....
new type of vendor. You stock it with Items, set it up as a vendor on any street anywhere. Then it packs up and returns back to your inventory the next dawn.
So, we could set up markets and shopping areas within cities. (limit the amount that they can store though, for large items and amounts of items you'll still need your shop.
The imperials can scan them for contraband, smugglers can get bonuses to keep the illegal goods hidden from imperial prying eyes....
TheVirg
Fri Jun 25, 2004 6:50 am
#123
I agree that polls would be an awesome addition to the forums.
My concept idea is this: I would like to see a quest system to reward an increase in the players HAM. I'm talking an increasing vast quest that takes you all over the galaxy. But not one based on loot drops. It would start with +10 to Health Action and Mind, no bonuses to the secondaries. and after completion would grant a total of 500 points increase to each main Stat.
Cephalo
Fri Jun 25, 2004 8:04 am
#124
BE's get critical failures like 1 in 10 times, sometimes with the loss of days of hard work. Will the moron who thought that critical failures might add to the game in a positive way please renounce his heresy and face the fact that random devestating and sudden loss was a bad idea and fix it permenantly?
Kurt_Mendel
Fri Jun 25, 2004 9:58 am
#125
As a consumer, finding what you want or need to buy off a vendor is terribly difficult to impossible. Right now, you have to visit tens of vendors in a category, and often your search may well still turn out to be a fruitless waste of time.
Likewise, as a merchant, there is little to no incentive for you to maintain your vendor and stock. A vendor with 3 junk loot items looks no different on the global map than one with 2 each of 100 different items. Customers can't tell yours is a good vendor to go to for anything, except by word of mouth or forums.
Something needs to be done to make shopping less of an ordeal in SWG, and I just happen to have a few suggestions:
The Holonet Shopping Network
In the real modern world, people purchase items online every day. Why not allow a Merchant with Advertising IV (or even Master) to list their vendor on the Holonet Shopping Network? The offerings of vendors listed on HSN could be browsed directly from the vendor's listing on the global planetary map. Maybe you could also purchase items while browsing, going to the vendor to pick them up. [Bonuses to lovers of the "drain" side of the "faucet/drain" econ: more maintenance for HSN listed vendors, and if you took the idea all the way, a % of the item price as a "delivery charge" to place the item in the player's inventory when purchased with delivery.]
Vendor Offering Statistics
Again perhaps for Ad IV or Master, when showing a vendor on the global map, offer the ability to show the count of items being offered by the vendor, as well as the number of unique items. Customers could establish a "pecking order" to go through when shopping - visit vendors with more item count and more unique items first while searching for an item, and work their way down. [Charge a higher maintenance rate for this ability as well, possibly.]
Player Vendor Ratings
Allow players to "star rate" vendors much as we rate posts here. One vote per player, per vendor. Players may CHANGE their rating. This is not my favorite because it's more subject to exploits/griefing, and keeping track of who's voted what could create a good bit of DB overhead for each vendor.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. I'd like to see one of those, or a combination, implemented. I believe they would help people find the items they need, improving the game experience for everyone, and reducing the "shopping timesink".
SmedleyLlama
Fri Jun 25, 2004 10:26 am
#126
RogueKairi wrote:
TheBrownDandy wrote:
Number Two
This again is nothing but an asthetic issue. Holsters.
The devs have already talked about this. Its art issue right nowbecause your body can change shape and the holster would never fit. It would look tooawkward, sometimes floatingordisappearing within the player once the changed shapes.They cant find a way right now to have the holster essentially change with you. Basically if you want holsters, then everybody has to be the same shape.
That's always puzzled me.
Seeing as we have belts and bandoliers already, I've never quite understood why adding a holster to one of these was such a big issue.
.
Eraint
Fri Jun 25, 2004 11:21 am
#127
Some of my suggestions are definitely do something about vendors/merchants. I can spend up to two or three hours flying around looking for something, and finding empty vendors. We need to implement a yellow pages or an ingame "Ebay" system. Not only would this allow merchants to advertise their stock, it would enable players to find what they are looking for. I think it would help the merchant profession greatly, and cut down on the spamming.
I would also like to see different vehicles, including some two person vehicles. That way there is not a herd of speederbikes and swoops going off together.
Jedi. During this time period there is not that many Jedi. Even in the books(ie 20yrs after the movie) there is not more than 200. Limit it. Not everybody wants to see Jedi running everywhere. Instead of focusing on the Jedi, balance out the combat, merchant and smugglers. Let smugglers have more responsibilities. Let the elite combat professions truely be elite, Let the bounty hunters take missions from other players(some snooty guy who runs their mouth annoy you, hire a bounty hunter).
New loot and locations. Definitely add some more high end caves and dungeons, or at least increase the respawn rate on some of them. Not increase the loot rate, thats what makes it valuable, it rarity, just increase the respawn in some of the caves.
Thanks
I would also like to see different vehicles, including some two person vehicles. That way there is not a herd of speederbikes and swoops going off together.
Jedi. During this time period there is not that many Jedi. Even in the books(ie 20yrs after the movie) there is not more than 200. Limit it. Not everybody wants to see Jedi running everywhere. Instead of focusing on the Jedi, balance out the combat, merchant and smugglers. Let smugglers have more responsibilities. Let the elite combat professions truely be elite, Let the bounty hunters take missions from other players(some snooty guy who runs their mouth annoy you, hire a bounty hunter).
New loot and locations. Definitely add some more high end caves and dungeons, or at least increase the respawn rate on some of them. Not increase the loot rate, thats what makes it valuable, it rarity, just increase the respawn in some of the caves.
Thanks
Kurt_Mendel
Fri Jun 25, 2004 11:32 am
#128
I was thinking about how some people complain that players are getting a defense tree from one elite profession, and one from another, and another, etc.
My understanding is that the combat rebalance will already be affecting this by changing the way defense modifiers stack.
Why not maketraining ina Novice Elite profession require *all* the skill points for that profession?
Because that would break the entire skill system as it's designed. Different trees of the elites certainly do mean different things. Both ranged and melee classes have different weapon certifications in different trees. For instance, Commando has Flame and Acid Rifle in two different trees, Sword has 1 and 2 handed weapon trees, etc. And in some trees like Rifleman, speed is in one tree, defense in another, accuracy in another, etc.
RogueKairi
Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:24 pm
#129
TheBrownDandy wrote:
Number Two
This again is nothing but an asthetic issue. Holsters.
The devs have already talked about this. Its art issue right nowbecause your body can change shape and the holster would never fit. It would look tooawkward, sometimes floatingordisappearing within the player once the changed shapes.They cant find a way right now to have the holster essentially change with you. Basically if you want holsters, then everybody has to be the same shape.
RogueKairi
Fri Jun 25, 2004 12:26 pm
#130
groovysplat101 wrote:
Only just spotted this thing about special events...it reminded me of something.
Mos Espa. Its there, on Tatooine. Near it SHOULD be a big Podracer track. Maybe its still there. Podracing could become a new thing in the game - a few tracks on planets here and there.
Podracing was banned throughout the galaxy. Which is why the racing went to swoops. Again, which is why that now even some swoop racing is illegal (i.e. Han Solo's famous swoop race in the Agrilat swamps).