Development Cycle Archive
Thread: In-Concept Open Discussion (5-31-04)
DeathLemur
Fri May 28, 2004 12:42 pm
#131
(To be posted in every weekly In Concept discussion thread until SOE tells me to bugger off. Or actually responds.)
- Improve upon dynamic/mission lairs... give us dynamic/mission dungeons. I am mostly a solo player, and my content options are seriously limited by the fact that A) the dungeons I can take by myself are usually camped, and B) all the other dungeons are Instantly Lethal to the solo player (unless they're a Commando). I'm tired to slaughtering swamp gurrcats...
So, why not figure out a way of implementing dynamic dungeons? Go to a mission terminal, pick up one, go to the waypoint and dive in. Have a boss monster or control point at the bottom of it to destroy. Make it so that only that player (or the group the player is in) can enter.
- On a slightly more complicated scale, let us *build* houses. Rather than prebuilt deeds of predesigned floorplans (I am of the opinion that the designer of the Corellian/Generic floorplans needs to be shot), give us 'Lego blocks'... predefined wall sections, floor sections, etc. Give architects a tool to build a house design from these parts and make a schematic from that. Pop into a factory with the appropriate parts to build the house from that schematic, out pops a deed, and you place it like a normal house.
On a side note, I think SOE would benefit from looking at what Second Life is doing. A MMORPG world built of textured 3D primitives... oh, the flexibility possibilities!
- Let artisans build signs, datapads, and other things that people can write on and stick in their house. It'd be nice to have price lists and notes and what not written on these, instead of CDEF pistols stuck in a vendor priced at 99 billion credits with a long description. Or be able to pass information without the email system. Keep journals of your adventures.
- A Resource Market. I've harped about this before, and I'm going to keep harping about it. Have a cluster of Resource Exchange terminals in the major city on each player planet (Corellia, Naboo, Tatooine, Dantooine, etc.)
Player A goes to the terminal with 10k units of Foobarium Titanium Aluminum, and feeds it into the system with a minimum sell price of 3 credits per unit.
Players B and C go to the terminals, both wanting Foobarium. B puts in an order for 5000 units at 3 credits per unit, and feeds 15000 credits to the machine to cover that. C puts in an order for 6000 units at 4 credits per unit, and feeds the machine 24000 credits.
Once ever five minutes or so, sales and orders are processed. Since C is willing to pay more for a unit of Foobarium, his order is completely filled, and 6000 units of Foobarium become available for pickup from the terminal. The 24000 credits that C paid is transferred to A's account, since it was A's sale that satisified the order.
Now, there are only 4000 units left for sale. Player B's order is partially filled at 3cpu, 12000 of the 15000 credits he paid is transferred to A, and 4000 units becomes available to B. B's order is then automatically modified to a 1000 unit order at 3cpu.
The terminals should also have a seven-day history of low/high/average cost per unit prices for resources it has handled. Resources should include metals, ores, chemicals, gases, meat, eggs, milk, hides, grains, wood, etc. Things you can harvest.
Advantages? Less people standing in front of starport shout-spamming resource sales. Newbies can sell to crafters without having to deal with people only wanting 10k or more of something, and newbies would get ripped off less if they actually knew what the going rate of the resources they have...
- A 'road' object that can be crafted and placed in player cities would be nice. Its hard to feel metropolitan when there's amber waves of grass between your house and city hall...
- Some general client performance improvement would be nice. I've got a Pentium 4 2.4ghz, a gig of memory, and an ATI Radeon 9800 128mb. I don't think there's any good reason why my framerate will be below 30fps a good deal of the time...
- Improve upon dynamic/mission lairs... give us dynamic/mission dungeons. I am mostly a solo player, and my content options are seriously limited by the fact that A) the dungeons I can take by myself are usually camped, and B) all the other dungeons are Instantly Lethal to the solo player (unless they're a Commando). I'm tired to slaughtering swamp gurrcats...
So, why not figure out a way of implementing dynamic dungeons? Go to a mission terminal, pick up one, go to the waypoint and dive in. Have a boss monster or control point at the bottom of it to destroy. Make it so that only that player (or the group the player is in) can enter.
- On a slightly more complicated scale, let us *build* houses. Rather than prebuilt deeds of predesigned floorplans (I am of the opinion that the designer of the Corellian/Generic floorplans needs to be shot), give us 'Lego blocks'... predefined wall sections, floor sections, etc. Give architects a tool to build a house design from these parts and make a schematic from that. Pop into a factory with the appropriate parts to build the house from that schematic, out pops a deed, and you place it like a normal house.
On a side note, I think SOE would benefit from looking at what Second Life is doing. A MMORPG world built of textured 3D primitives... oh, the flexibility possibilities!
- Let artisans build signs, datapads, and other things that people can write on and stick in their house. It'd be nice to have price lists and notes and what not written on these, instead of CDEF pistols stuck in a vendor priced at 99 billion credits with a long description. Or be able to pass information without the email system. Keep journals of your adventures.
- A Resource Market. I've harped about this before, and I'm going to keep harping about it. Have a cluster of Resource Exchange terminals in the major city on each player planet (Corellia, Naboo, Tatooine, Dantooine, etc.)
Player A goes to the terminal with 10k units of Foobarium Titanium Aluminum, and feeds it into the system with a minimum sell price of 3 credits per unit.
Players B and C go to the terminals, both wanting Foobarium. B puts in an order for 5000 units at 3 credits per unit, and feeds 15000 credits to the machine to cover that. C puts in an order for 6000 units at 4 credits per unit, and feeds the machine 24000 credits.
Once ever five minutes or so, sales and orders are processed. Since C is willing to pay more for a unit of Foobarium, his order is completely filled, and 6000 units of Foobarium become available for pickup from the terminal. The 24000 credits that C paid is transferred to A's account, since it was A's sale that satisified the order.
Now, there are only 4000 units left for sale. Player B's order is partially filled at 3cpu, 12000 of the 15000 credits he paid is transferred to A, and 4000 units becomes available to B. B's order is then automatically modified to a 1000 unit order at 3cpu.
The terminals should also have a seven-day history of low/high/average cost per unit prices for resources it has handled. Resources should include metals, ores, chemicals, gases, meat, eggs, milk, hides, grains, wood, etc. Things you can harvest.
Advantages? Less people standing in front of starport shout-spamming resource sales. Newbies can sell to crafters without having to deal with people only wanting 10k or more of something, and newbies would get ripped off less if they actually knew what the going rate of the resources they have...
- A 'road' object that can be crafted and placed in player cities would be nice. Its hard to feel metropolitan when there's amber waves of grass between your house and city hall...
- Some general client performance improvement would be nice. I've got a Pentium 4 2.4ghz, a gig of memory, and an ATI Radeon 9800 128mb. I don't think there's any good reason why my framerate will be below 30fps a good deal of the time...
JiminyCricket1370
Fri May 28, 2004 5:41 pm
#132
ok i am playing in the Scylla server, and i dont know if it is an issue in anyother server but i am a Master Bounty Hunter. when i try to do missions to go and kill the player Jedi's my droids never go to the right planet. i know this because i gota mission for a jedi friend of mine just to test if it worked, and when the droid sent me the message back about where the mission was located on, it said to go the the planetTatooine when i was standing right next to him on Dantooine. i was able to attack him but it sent me the wrong planet. so i was wondering if the droids will ever be able to find the jedi on the right planet that they are on?? meaning when i get a mission for them will irecieve amessage to go the actual planet that that jedi is on. becaues the only reason that i went for MBH is to be able to hunt the jedi's. so if possible i was wondering if i could get an answer to this. thanks.
JediForceSeeker
Sat May 29, 2004 3:51 am
#133
Ok I got a lot of stuff that i have talked about to my friends and its all going to be explained in this post. (lol)
1.Alrite, well my main priority is The tide of the eveness of the game. My friends feel that if all professions are eve, that makes it impossible for players, or factional teams to have hardly any strategic advantage. And when you pick the choice between the Empire and the Rebellion, most people wanted to be the good guys. Well im not complainging about that but Rebels have been going overt and dominating. That isnt really a problem either, my point is that in the movies, or in the books, were Rebels walking around killing Imperials in the cities? I think that the Rebels should be getting missions not to destroy things like bases, maybe something like my friend told me about, say Vader had ordered something and it was being delivered in a convoy, Vader could assign the high-ranking Imperials to protect the convoy, and the Rebels would have the missions available to destroy it.
2.Another addition 1., i also wanted them to consider when your overt you can get the title of someting like ''Imperial Colonel'' or whatever your rank is. I also think that there should be Factional Events, like for example that maybe once a week schedule something like the Emperor goes to Theed to go and give a speech. It would be interesting to see AT-AT's and AT-ST's around the area and Stormtroopers and Imperial Officers around him, and as he gives the speech Rebels can have the opprutunity to attack the Emperor and his army. This also brings up another one of my Conceptions, I think Developers should play the main characters of the star wars universe, and the Emperor can defend himself against potential threat of Rebels. Luke would be interesting to see trainging or something, just simple Events that would make the game more interesting.
3.People aren't really enjoying the game cause of the 'Equal' proffessions of the game. i think that it would be a good idea if you were to go and make each profession in-equal, but give each profession its strength. For Example, Swordsmandominates against Commando as Commando dominates Carbineer(These are EXAMPLES i really doubt that things would be like that). I also think some profession enhancements are in order. Bounty Hunters are getting Jet Packs ect., but i think only Bounty Hunters should be wearing the Mandolorian/Black Sun armor, and the Jet Packs. Also for example that Fencer should be allowed to use 2 wepons simotaniously, as should Pistoleer. Since some of the professions that require that they need 2 hands to wield their current weapon. For Example, Commando needs 2 hands to wield a Flame Thrower, give them a special ability like the flame that they emit (flamesingle2 ect.) can have a chance to knockdown their target. I think these enhancements, or at least considering these will make the game more fun.
4.I also wanted to talk about the GCW, i know that they are working to improve the GCW story, but as the Space Expansion comes out we will need to have more of the quests like The Geonosian Cave or The Death Watch Bunker. I think it would be interesting to see something like a dungeon on a moon or an asteroid thats floating around in space as a dungeon, dont mention the location but announced that they were out, and some more exploration part of the game would be slightly improved.
5.What would be interesting would be to be able to set which badges you would want to display. I, myself, am not really 'proud' of my exploration badges, but the profession badges are much more interesting. This may though, cause confusion in PvP but like i said earlier, niether side or anything Faction wise or reg Neutral PvPing have no strategical edge.
6.Ok in the movie(s), The Empire was dominating and an At-St was impossible to be destroyed by 1 person. I think an At-St should be changed back to the way they were and very strong, this may sound unfair but you can increase the Fp cost since now they are literally useless. It would make the game more interesting. But thats really not one of the more 'Important' things to consider.
7.Ok as a Teras Kasi Master i know that I myself, can solo nearly everything in the Galaxy alone. Now in Real Life, or in the movies, it wasnt possible for people to go around walking over 6 Enraged Rancors at a time. I think the armor shoudl be de-graded and made more realistic. I think the Weapon De-grade wasn't that bad of an idea, but you shouldnt make everything equal, as i said in conception #3, each profession has its advantage against 1 or 2 certain profession and is weak against 1 or 2 other preofessions. This would greatly increae the enjoyment of the gaem, like in a Factional battle, say a Rifleman is picking a Swordsman off with Head Shot 3, and Rifleman's weakness is Fencer (for example) the faction team eing assaulted can counter attack with the riflemans weak ness and the opposing Faction team can counter the counter attack and so on.
Thanks for reading this and listening to me. Some of you may not like my ideas, but im only suggesting and saying what i thought would be a good idea to talk about.
JediForceSeeker
Sat May 29, 2004 4:03 am
#134
Hey its me again i forgot to add one more Conception.
8.I wanted to explain one last thing, Test Center. If its a Test Center i think when you make a character you pick their profession and then pick there weapons, and credits are not even used. And to not make this a server that people just stay on instead of the real servers, you should make it to where the TC opens once a day for maybe 3 hours, they make a character and try it out, and then if they like that template/build, they can work for it on the real servers.]]
Thanks again for listening to my Last suggestion, please forgive my spelling mistakes.
spoiledbrat
Sat May 29, 2004 5:33 am
#135
Hello,
I currently dont have a jedi (neither live nore test center) and couldn´t care less to have one. I read the Jedi Archives and the recent test center updates and now I am being a little puzzled. Right now I have three accounts, one of them is a pure crafter. If I understand it right you get a special bonus in crafting if you "dabble" into force experimentation. So in order to compete withother crafters (as most others, I try to succeed in being the best)I amforced to dabble in this new experimentation skill thus being a force sensitive char? This means a radical change in the jedi crowd control strategy, instead of trying to keep the jedi population low the strategy is now toencourage everybody tobecome one?
If this is true I will probably just unlock each a second char slot on two accounts and letthem bothbecome the new crafters and just cancel my third crafters account, which saves me 15 bucks a month (which makes me happy) and having to force enhanced crafters...
Was thisintended?
Possible consequences (depending on how big the crowd will be):
Mules will start to appear, game economy willreceivesomekind ofimpact, people will start to craft/buff for themselves.
Or did I get something wrong here?
Thanks
after unlocking the second Char slot by doing quests, I have
Amander
Sat May 29, 2004 8:19 am
#136
I'd like to see a way to search for items a bit different that just the bazaar. Like to search for items by name or partial names, by what it's a variant of, a type of item that has a min of certain stats...
Like, right now, I need a 'Heavy Duty Clasp'. It's dropped loot, but where on the bazaar would it show up? I don't know, and don't have a way of finding out unless I come across one. This case, I'd like to search by name, and see what I can find.
There's been times in the past I've wanted to search for a specific type of furiture, but those get renamed so often, it's frustating to shift though all the items sometimes. Here, I'd liked to be able to search for all items that are based off the item I'm trying to match.
If I want a power-up for my melee weapon to have a certain %, or if I only want to pull all organic foods that have a OQ and PE of no less than 800, or only tissue componets that are +5 or greater on a certian stat or just +5 in general, I'd like to be able to do a search like that.
This way, I find what I need with no fuss and muss. Thanks for considering my idea!
Micro_Wavingstar
Sat May 29, 2004 2:24 pm
#137
hi there.
here is something that i have wanted to do since i started in january --- change the color of bikes, clothes, speeders, general items to the color blue. i am not talking the light blue available now but a real deep blue. blue is my favorite color and i can't find a good shade anywhere in the game. thank you.
SirCyrus
Sat May 29, 2004 5:17 pm
#138
A yellow pages system. On your planetary map you can list the vendors who are registered, but a better system would be to have a yellow pages. Players could create a small blurb to tell about their shop, list it under certain categories so that people can quickly find what they're looking for, then download the WP onto their datapad for easy direction. It would be a much cleaner easier to use system and give players the ability to give some information on their shop/vendors.
JalonDrett
Sat May 29, 2004 9:28 pm
#139
Howdy TH,
I've been chatting with the guildies tonight, discussing the emergence of the UBER-FENCER, due to some of the new poisoned swords.
I personally had my a** handed to me by one of these dudes...
...which leads me to mine and my guild-mates conclusion:
AXE THE MELEE PROFESSIONS!!! ALL OF THEM! (or redirect their roles)
I'm sorry, but I believe they have no bearing whatsoever on the Star Wars Universe.When do you ever see some super-karate guyhanding it to a platoon of stormtroopers in the movies, let along being able to hand it to a commando with a flame thrower?!? I mean come on! Sure, Ican understand why some people like playing with these types of weapons, but in no way should they be able to dominate in ways which theycurrently are. A rifleman, pistoleer, or carbineer, or commando should be able to win hands down. I've seen other posts on this, so I know I'm notalone.
If you just absolutely decide that these profs need to stay in the game, AT LEAST nerf them down to say,very situation specific support roles. I could also see them being more applicable to person-vs.creature combat. For instance, their value could be fulfilled in being able to dominate certain creatures that ranged professions would struggle with. They have also had some value in other games, such as KOTOR, in dueling with jedi.
Yes, you will piss people off if you remove/nerf them, but it will mainly be a short-lived outcry due to people losing XP and time (which could also be mitigated).
This needs to be done before the combat rebalance.
I want to stress the importance of this because I have talked to numerous people, even those who have done melee profs, who feel the same way. Dominant Melee Profs!= Star Wars!
You all have done an awesome job with this game. The core is there; it just needs some majortweeking. I, for one, will be sticking around well past the advent of WoW, just because I am a Star Wars fan.
I know you're all busy with the jedi revamp, so file this one away for a month or two (I will too). If you guys nail the jedi revamp, you'll be nice and free'd up to take a crack at improving some of these types of things.
Keep up the good work,
SrinKnorei
Sun May 30, 2004 12:15 am
#140
inactive players being dropped from player city citizenship. this bothers me immensely. i under the need to, as a way of filtering out inactive cities and thus watch cities go so that new one can appear, or that the load can be lessened on the servers, but i think two weeks is way too steep a period.
sometimes we have technical issues that prevent us from getting in game, sometimes real life issues. for instance, some of the members of our PA and city have personal problems they have to sort out before they can come back in play. and this is supposed to take less than two weeks?
instead, why not increase the drop period to when someone's account runs out and they have to pay again, and if they don re-activate the account, then drop them? or instease it to maybe a month or two of inactivity? either way, i know this two week thing is hurting the city i live in.
EFB
Sun May 30, 2004 7:56 am
#141
I hate Coronet. It has the best health care and alot of people to meet, but you have to run the gauntlet of walking billboards everytime you go there. I hate having to fight your way through spam just to get to your destination and hate crashes beacause of it. I was thinking THthat possibly a chat window just for adverts could be created which would cut down the amount of info on screenand maybe speed things up a bit. I know that this would be difficult to enforce but it may help. Or maybe an advertising terminal could be created so that vendorsm could place their adverts in the terminal and prosepective buyers could look up the vendor that best suits them. this would also allow for more info to be posted. I know that i would be more inclined to buy if my gameplay was not being destroyed.
Could i have some feed back from vendors on this as well.
Pasyd Giji -Chilastra
Yterbium
Sun May 30, 2004 8:45 am
#142
Adjusted Loot Items
Since the outset of the game back on Day One, there has been an issue with looted items and junk dealers. First, if I run into some guy in the desert who is shooting at me with a flamethrower, then when I loot that guy there should be a flamethrower on him. This is a mainstay of gaming events in any genre, and it has been completely overlooked here. Same thing if the individual appears to be wearing composite or bounty hunter armor, or whatever else.
It is perfectly reasonable to have the items significantly jacked up after a fight, but to have nothing that you see be present is absurd. I think most of the community would agree that they are tired of spending hours coming the desert/swamps/forests to bring back few thousand credits and a broken datapad from looting.
This would also make the use of the junk dealers much more appealing and in-continuity, as there would BE junk to sell, and also help stabilize the economy on servers like Bria where one crafter (whose name will not be mentioned) fancies charging a MILLION credits for a worthwhile weapon.
I think both of these issues can be simply and conveniently adjusted with entries into the loot dbase. Please consider this option.
Yterbium
Sun May 30, 2004 8:48 am
#143
Jawa AI
I don't know about anyone else, but I have been waiting a long time to see the Jawa behavioral AI updated. When are they going to start trying to pilfer droids? When are they going to start taking swoops and speeders that have been left sitting in the same place for an hour while the owner goes running off to kill whatever without thinking about the consequences for their equipment?
I think this would add an entirely new dimension to NPC interaction when someone loses a swoop or droid to a Jawa one day, and then goes on a Jawa killing spree, thus dropping their Jawa faction, thus encouraging more pilfering.
What do you think?