Development Cycle Archive

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Thunderheart wrote:

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They are NPCs in the Corellian Corvette.

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Goucho wrote:
Non CH pets are now worthless... As i bio engineer i made 1800-2800 ham with mid 20's kinetic pets for me and all my friends and for sale. Which imo are useful but not overpowered.Now they are all worhtless. If you don't want us using pets without being a creature handler why did you give em to us in the first place? Put it back please or at least put the final nail in the coffin and just remove non ch pets.

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I just ran into the same problem, except the pet *was* a CH pet. Spent several hours gathering DNA, experimenting, crafting templates, fighting critical failures to make a few sub-level 20 pets. I gave a noob Novice CH a level 12 Kaadu with 4500 HAM, 150-160 dmg, < 20 resists and special attacks. As a novice BE, I felt pretty proud of this. After she tamed it, she got the message that the level or stats needed to be adjusted. Knowing that adjusting the level would make the pet useless for her, we elected to adjust the stats. Well, the level 12 Kaadu with 1300 HAM, 80 dmg, no resists and no specials is just as useless to her.

My point is, why should a BE bother spending hours gathering resources, experimenting and making a decent entry-level (non-CH or) CH pet, only to have it nerfed into a worthless NPC? As a Master CH, I could have saved myself a bunch of trouble and just tamed her a carrion spat or a wild kaadu and ended up with something better at a lot less effort.

I understand the need to balance gameplay, however if I spend all the time and effort into actually making something worthwhile (if a Kaadu can be considered worthwhile), then that item SHOULD NOT be nerfed. If that level 12 Kaadu didn't belong in the game, then I should never have been able to create it in the first place.

Errlor (Wookiee, Master CH, Bio-Engineer)
Valcyn

I'd like to point out to people who are complaining about the lack of new combat droids and combat droid chassis just exactly why we don't have them. It's not that the Devs didn't want to give them to us, in fact, the devs did have plans to add them to the game, the graphics for them were even finished. However, a small, but very vocal, group of players badgered the devs into canceling the combat droids and the droid commander profession that was to be the method to keep the high level combat droids balanced in the game. I do applaud the devs' commitment to maintaining balance, they were under a lot of pressure to just add the combat droids and throw balance to the wind. They didn't do that, they knew that would have devastating and irreparable effects on game balance. But they did pull the combat droids and droid commander due to their belief that it was what the players wanted. We need to let them know that isn't what most of the players wanted. Even, it seems, most Droid Engineers didn't want that. Just a very small but VERY vocal group. Maybe we need to get them to put up a forum poll to see what the majority of players actually want, not just the loudest, not just those most willing to spam their opinions over and over in a thread until they look like a majority, not just those willing to flame anyone who disagrees with them until no one will post disagreements, but an actual majority. Let's see how many people actually want high power Combat Droids, even with the Droid Commander profession that must go with them to balance them.

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Mack_Dorgeans wrote:

2. Jedi should not be able to use these weapons to "hide" that they are Jedi because part of the point of beingone is to risk discovery (at least as currently implemented).

Quite a few Jedi have made mention that they were never able to use the Republic Blaster the way everybody else could. Just an FYI

However, removing these weapons also threatens to make even more rare the near extinct species known as pure crafters. Since the pets they can use (droid or biological) are not able to protect against, or even slightly distract, the average random spawn mobs found on "starter" planets (let alone a place like Dathomir), and the weapons they can use as non-combat professionals are a joke, crafters must either have player bodyguards escort them on their harvester rounds, or they must count on always running away from trouble using speeders. A game already too focused on combat content and economically helter skelter should be finding ways to ENCOURAGE crafters, not make their lives harder.

Master Artisan + Master (Tailor, Weaponsmith, DE, Armorsmith, Chef, Architect) + Master Merchant = 203 skill points. That leaves you 47, so pick two of the following: Pistols 4, Rifles 4, Carbines 4, Ranged Support 4. If you want to fully dedicate yourself to crafting, that's the price you pay. Try telling a Bounty Hunter that he's out of luck when he wants to dabble in..... anything useful at all. Actually, don't try that because you'll get flamed like crazy and it will be a waste of time. If you want more combat skills, then give up some of those Merchant skills. Balancing your combat and non-combat skills, that's the name of the game.

I always thought that the trade-off for having a couple weapons that could be used for full damage without skills was really terrible to-hit chances, no speed mods, etc. It seemed a fair trade, because though unskilled players could fire a very dangerous weapon, they were always taking a big chance that misses, lack of speed/damage modifiers, etc. would mean they'd get pummeled anyway. This was a gamble they could choose to take or not, as they wished.

If you're going to get pummeled with a good gun, then what does it matter? The speed mods isn't a good arguement, since Body Shot 2 in the Marksman Pistols line doesn't have a large delay, and you can easily get a very fast and very powerful Republic Blaster if you're willing to dish out the money for it. The accuracy mods aren't such a big deal, since the Republic Blaster is already very accurate at long range.

The gun is just FAR too powerful to give to people with little Pistol skills (or even none at all).

Now, given that there ARE good reasons for not wanting high-yield weapons to be usable by just anyone, why not come up with a THOUGHT-OUT alternative that offers another option once the nerfs are put into effect? For example, what about having a skill level experimentation option on craftable weapons? That way, weaponsmiths could sell default stat weapons that could be used by low-skill or no-skill players. Keep a solid accuracy penalty (and the fact that unskilled players can't use specials is a big counterbalance already), and players still have some options for personal defense even though the easy-leveling and other loopholes are dealt with.

That defeats the entire purpose of the certification system.

Or, if a new experimentation stat is too difficult to handle, how about some new loot-only weapons -- dropped by low-end mobs -- that anyone can use, but are hampered by the same counterbalances as above? Frankly, considering how rare the slug-thrower carbines are, they don't seem to be a huge problem anyway. Republic blasters, ascraftable weapons that can be churned out infinitely, are more problematic.

You don't seem to understand that Pistoleers (and I'm sure Carbineers too but I don't read their forum) don't like you using the gun. At all. Not even a little bit. Seriously, really don't like it in the slightest. Actually, more like hate it. Most Pistoleers want the certification for the Scatter Pistol (the BH gun) to be in the Pistoleer tree too (I disagree but that's my opinion). It's not just a question of the gun being powerful; it's also a question of giving each combat profession the respect they feel they deserve. Carbineers and Pistoleers get kicked in the hoo-ha's plenty enough already without having the added frustration of seeing a 3 Entertainers run by with Republic Blasters right as Mr. Over-powered Rifleman deals the Death Blow.

Sorry, you don't like losing the gun, but these people didn't want you to every have it in the first place and they're fully justified in feeling that way. Having dummed down versions of the weapons isn't going to cut it.

Anyway, the point is, some give-and-take should happen so people who don't want to be combat professionals aren't forced to have combat skills just to get around and do their already tedious chores. By all means fix the exploits if that's what they're deemed to be, but give people other, balanced, options at the same time as the nerfs.

It's not a nerf, it'sa fix. Don't call it a nerf, when it's not a nerf. The certification was busted, and now it is fixed. Just because you get the short end of the stick doesn't make it a nerf.You're not going to get any sympathy from Pistoleers or Carbineers due to the crap-tacular state they're in. They will argue the point into the ground that it is their weapon, and not yours. You want give and take? Give me your Republic Blaster, because they've taken away your certification for it. There's your give and take.

Sorry you don't like losing the gun, but it never should have been in your hands in the first place.

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KaernLegorah wrote:
And how would you like them to thoroughly test it?
. . .The resources and time just aren't available on this one. Get real buddy.

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I'm calling B.S. on this one. SOE is a huge company worth millions (billions?) and they are collecting a tidy sum in revenue from their online MMORPGs. They are selling a subscription based service for a game based upon extreme marketing hype, empty promises and a customer base loyal to a franchise. If they really want to make a quality product and make their customers happy, then they will address the known issues as expressed in these forums by whatever means necessary. Hell, I'm sure there are a multitude of players that would be willing to sign NDAs, pay extra monthly fees or whatever to become jedi characters on Test Center. Not to mention, there are several hundred thousand quality developers out of work right now that would love to go to work on repairing and enhancing this game, many of which can be hired at a fraction of the salary they were making 2 years ago.

Get Real? Sure, the reality is, keeping the existing customers as a source of income by dribbliing out "enhancements" like lighting fixtures and moving objects as the best thing to come out of a major publish? Hyping up Jedi's, Imperial Crackdowns and Droid Invasions sounds like marketing hype to lure in new customers and previous customers that got disgusted and left.

The reality is SOE doesn't really care, they got your 15 bux this month.

Errlor

The disappearing newly-purchased item bug is back with a vengance. I bought a high priced item (crafter apron with architect skills)that disappeared on a speederbike ride home. Didn't even take a shuttle.

Would have sent SOE medical bill for heart attack, but it came back on relog

Droids

The combat droids are less than effective!...low powered weapons to maintain balance i can understand, but such low HAM/Resists is plain crazy. Glad i'm not a DE right now. Combat droids need to be able to help in combat, make them tougher.

Crafting

The few Master crafters that i talked with last night were impressed with the crafting changes. They didn't want them altering back again but were having problems logging into the forums. Keep the changes.

Everything else seems ok but not had time to test all the others yet, those i did get time to look at seemd positive changes.

Maybe I was too hasty.

1 client crash later and me badges are back.

Only on one character though lol

Adarr Hu'an

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MatBrown wrote:

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Peaceman wrote:

Since this last publish, my framerate has dropped to almost slide-show quality.

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I have been having to use "/flushGraphicsResources fullReset" every few minutes in big cities today. Something happened.

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I believe you stated before that we will be able to take our guns out of their crates now to get some trash we didn't buy since you "developers" are moronic theifs...

Why are my guns still stuck in crate?