Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Weekly Rountdable Discussion (Week Ending 2-1-04)
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TH wrote:
EvilDrider wrote:
Morning TH...
I think one of the major points to bring up is.. Contraband!
As a jedi andwith another characterwho uses lots of sliced armor and spices, is there any way we can get some clarification on what is or is not contraband.
I assume that Spices and all sliced items are illegal.. as they should be. However what else is?
Im not telling - - thats part of the fun of the game.
What do you mean you aren't telling? Come on TH, this is Asinine to say the least... This is like telling us "OK boys and Girls, I'm the new King of the World and I'm going to pass new laws and legislation to better safe guard this Utopia that we call earth; but, I'm not going to tell you what these new laws are... You'll just have to find out on your own. Oh, and if you're found breaking these Laws, we're going to burn down your house, sell your daughter into slavery, beat you with garden hose, and gang rape your dog... Please be good Citizens now, it's what makes this life fun".
I know I'm over exaggerating, but come on... Contraband is Contraband because a Society deems it hurtful or detrimental to the welfare of said society be it Democratic, Imperialistic, or Tyrannical... But still the society knows what it can and can not possess. And even if it were the case where only the privileged few know what is and is not allowable, they have families, and those families have friends, and those friends have families who in turn have friends... Need I go on? Come on, we should have some way of finding out what is and is not Contraband. I can make at least 3 more arguments that shoot your answer in pants just off the top of my head right now, and I'll gladly elaborate if you wish... But I'm sorry, it's not fun, and not telling usshould not be part of the game.
You guys so far have introduced enough stuff that make this game overly complicated and, at times, unwieldy (and I understand it's not meant to be and I'm bearing with you because I believe that you have the games best interest at heart), we certainly don't need another.
Thanks for Listening
TH, can you explain this please?
from the Test Center Patch Notes:
________________________________________________________________
He's answered this in other forums (and thanks for doing so, by the way).
Sliced goods (weapons and armor) are illegal, as are spices. Rebel faction is also illegal. That's it, apparently, though I suspect that slicing tools (laser knives, FANs, Molecular Clamps, maybe WUKs and AUKs, too) are illegal as well.
Lokian Wild Wheat is not illegal, nor, apparently, are any other resources at the moment.
Thunderheart wrote:
In the box where it says, “Macro Text”, add your movement. For example: /rotatefurniture left 90 /rotatefurniture left 180 /move forward 2 /move back
/move forward has been broken for several weeks. It always gives the message "that item is not in the building" or something, and the only way to move stuff around is to turn around and move it backwards.
VendtDarkfell wrote:
Bad News: Jedi Permadeath gone. Droid Handler. . . er, Droid Master. . . er, Droid Controller.
Good News: Thunderheart quotes scripts to introduce posts. Holocrons gone. Imperials get serious. Chef Hat. MILK. Runesaber posts. Cheaters busted.
I'm feeling some positive momentum. . . there are still some misteps and miscommunication, but this game might turn out to be StarWars after all.
Tam Darkfell (Intrepid/Infinity) / Vendt Darkfell (TC)
I agree completely.
There have been some misteps, particularly removing Permadeath, which I think is the biggest mistep possible in this game. They talked for years before the game came out about how rare Jedi would be and how extremely difficult a Jedi's life would be. I see no reason why to change this 7 months after the game came out.
However:
I love using the dev tracker now.
It's amazing how much red there's beenin there recently 
It looks likeTH's big plan to improve communication this yearmight be starting to work now.
Theymust have been overwhelmed with the SWG Discussion forum.
The Weekly Roundtable Discussion is a mess, but certainly a much more manageable. Things don't fly off the first page never to be seen again. The content is open but the structure is closed.
In Concept, in Development, and In Testing seem to be working well now, too.
Core Systems is most of the best stuff about the old SWG Discussion forum, but with much, much less fat. Mostly constructive player suggestions. It's decently moderated, and has a great correspondent, to boot.
I still would like a forum called Cantina where players from all the servers can go to chew the fat. It would be the game's watercooler. No one should expect any developers to spend much of any time there. Of course, it would need some moderation, too.
The communication level is really improving.
At the moment, theone thing I'd like communicated the most right now is: will Jedi remain rare?
LLJK_Griz wrote:
Thunderheart wrote:
In the box where it says, “Macro Text”, add your movement. For example: /rotatefurniture left 90 /rotatefurniture left 180 /move forward 2 /move back
/move forward has been broken for several weeks. It always gives the message "that item is not in the building" or something, and the only way to move stuff around is to turn around and move it backwards.
if this contriban BS goes into effect, and i lose all my armor, my weapons, my resources .... im done with this game.
haveing to replace decaying items is bad enough (and i DONT PvP) but if i have to worry about some stormtrooper stealing what i paid over 2 million credits for in the first place on either a random scan or some sort of check point...... well thats the straw that will break this back. taking items AWAY from players just cause you cant think of anything better to add into the game..... well thats got to be the stupidest idea i've ever heard of.
Armitage - Bria
Master Doctor Novice Dancer and Novice Swordswoman
Thunderheart wrote:
Soon. Its high on the list- - I think maybe we'll be able to get "up and "down" at least added to publish 7. The schedule is still firming up but it looks pretty good.
I have an idea but I am not sure it belongs here, oh well I'll post it anyway.
I think to add an accentive for people to obtain master rank in any fightting profession, instead of dabbling, once Master level is obtained, a new weapon is added. The weapon should be more powerful than the earlier ones in accordance to the profession with no more complexity to craft than the novice weapons.
This way the weaponsmiths will actuallyhave them available.
The weapons should corrulate with each individual professionsuch as pikeman get reduced modifiers to specials andbetter range, fencer hell they are fast enough but maybe higher wound for the bleeds, swordsman more damage. And so on
I just think this wouldeven out the fields instead of everyone switching to the player of the month then waiting until the next big patch and changing back over. Plus it gives people a reason to quit dabbling in multiple professions and then the DEVS might actually get an accurate account of what profession need help.
Just mythoughts,
TH, let me repost this in here. I'm not sure whats been going on, but our politician correspondant has been trying to contact you about the following issue. Also, we have yet to hear any response on our top 5. Could you please take some time and comment on this? A lot of politicians would appreciate it...
- Some cities, in an effort to bolster their standing, make server trades with other players. These players have no intention on being active in those cities, and are only their because their home city will recieve another citizen in exchange for their cooperation.
- Because of the caps on player city rank, some cities will never hope to be able to progress to a metropolis and will be stuck in their current standing only.
- Most player cities look abandoned when visited and this change might make them look more lively.
Intended Benefits of the Fix
In a perfect world, implimenting the 3 or 6 week rule would result in the following benefits:
- Eliminate the cross server ghost citizens
- Allow every city to have a chance at progressing
- Make player cities more active when visited
At first glance, this solution seems to work fine. However, it has some fundamental problems, both logically and implimentation wise, which will cause more problems thanthey solves. Here are the problems:
Why this is aTERRIBLE idea.
- Discriminates against Casual Gamers - Last time I checked, casual gamers were paying customers of this game. They make a consious decision that they want to be part of a city, however, given their real life, whether they be students, military, or just hard working parents, now they are not entitled to live in cities if they can't keep up with the powergamers. End result: Mayor: "Are you a casual player?" Casual player: "yes." Mayor: "Sorry, you are not welcome here. You have a chance of just becoming another lot hogging person not affilated with the city because you can't play as much as our powergamers."
- Totally Surpise Nerf - When this patch hits, everyone who doesn't read these forums will be completely surprised by it. Thus, if they have city services or decorations near the edge of this city, those structures (perhaps millions of credits worth) will blow up or stop working. This is because the development team as given us NO communication on the issue, so mayors will not be expecting this change. Imagine how happy they will be when they lose double digits worth of citizens and millions of dollars in infrastructure potentially in the same day.
- Disappearing Space Effect - This is the worst side effect. Lets say I have a old city and its inactive members are closer towards the center of it, while its active ones are near the outside. When this patch goes into effect, I will immediately lose radius because of all the lost old citizens. However, because all my new, activecitizens are on the edge of the radius, they will be lost as well when the radius decreases. And so I'll lose those citizens and then be liable for another loss in rank the next time the city updates and the radius decreases yet again.
So why cant I just replace them? Because in some cities, all the central space is either used up or non-buildable. Those inactive citizens put hundreds of thosands of credits into their homes to make sure they dont grief the city or have their city status change. So eventually, as more and more players leave, my buildable space will not increase...rather, it will decrease, since the inactive residents still have houses in the city. And because the developers ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT let us remove people's houses (a good decision, btw, to prevent griefer mayors), we wont be able to do anything about it. Therefore, eventually I will hit a invisible citizen cap because there will be no space to build anything else.
- Does not solve the issues it tries to fix. I've already spoken to some mayors who artificially inflate their city rank using server swaps. They keep track of the emails of those they do deals with, and will have them log on at a moments notice. Therefore, the vast majority of the cities that will be hurt are the ones that actually have a legitimate city rank, while server swapping will still be as dominant as ever. And as far as livelyness goes, don't expect to see your city any busier than it is now. Guess what: in order for cities to be lively they need a reason to be; thats what will make players flock to player cities. Right now, there is no real incentive for them to do so, and when this patch hits, it will not create any more activeness in cities. The only change mayors can expect to see is now, their citizen count has decreased, and they now have useless properties in their city.
- Creates unnessesasry competition between cities. With this change being active, rather than cities being able to focus on important, game enhancing events and high land values, mayors will be forced to recruit almost nonstop. Why? Try running a metropolis. As a mayor, I can tell you that I lose at least 1 or 2 from mine a day. If I have to compensate for players who don't log on as much as the developers like, all of my time will have to spent recruiting, as will the mayor of any other large metro.
- Undue Fix, Should have been thought about prior to player city release - Quite simply, it is unfair that the developers make us develop our city to conform to certain conditions, and then completely change around that structure based upon an abstract number that one of them thought of. This should have been thought about prior to release, instead of so far into the player city lifecycle. Now some of us will be unable to cope with this change for whatever reason, and pushing this onto us and punishing us for your lack of oversight is a terrible mistake.
Please Thunder and the rest of the developers....think about this change and the ramifications it could have. I will post some alternate solutions later to cope with this problem, but please digest this change that you are about to make, and how it will hurt not just the big old cities or serverswap cities, but ALL cities.
Thanks.
Thunderheart wrote:
What Im hoping will happen is we'll get a switch on our main housing control panel and it will have "bright, medium and dim" or something similar and the lighting levels through out the house will be effected.