Development Cycle Archive

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Non-Creature Handlers can have 1 pet

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Is this to say I can no longer have my mount and my attack pet, or I can only have 1 out at a time?

The DEVS have shown us again how clueless they are. There are two primary means to kill an ATST. TKA using dizzy and knockdown and commando using flame. These two methods should not be able to take down an ATST. Flame throwers are anti personnel weapons not anti armor. The dizzy/KD is just silly. If anything the TKA should be knocked down dizzy for kicking the ATST all day. The only weapon thatshould be able to kill an ATST is something with blast damage i.e. rocket launcher.

With this changethe ATST has been effectively removed from the game. A step back for the GCW.

Non CHs will have onlyone pet. This is the biggestNERFto the game. A player will have to choose whether to have a droid, creature pet, or faction soldier.

• faction soldiers are already worthless in PvP. no point in getting them now since they can only be used in PvP and not PvE. To use them on PvE faction missions you have to be overt. Nobody is going to risk death decay and losing their only faction pet to some who is engaged in PvP while wanting to run faction missions with their only pet.Another disadvantage is faction soldiers are difficult to heal, ATSTs cant be healed, and they perma die. It is now a rare treat to see faction soldiers running through town. They will now be extinct. Another step back for the GCW.


• Droids are used by the crafting classes as mobile crafting stations and medics for healing. I dont see much of a change here. The combat classes that did have the worthless probot droid will not buy one now. Another factor against owning a droid is that theyare not healable. In february DEs are suppose to get combat droids. This could be a positive change, but the DEV track record with the DE profession has been dismal. It is hard to put hope behind this.


• Creature pets will be reduced to level 10 for non CHs. For non CHs the only pet will be the level 10 mount. There arent any level 10 creatures that are really worth a crap. Hopefully the BE changes can help this. Advantage to creature pets is that they are easily healable compared to the other types of pets. With the coming of vehicles mounts will be extinct. Question... will vehicles be pets?

What does this mean?? It means more people will become CHs. Right now the best combo in the game is CH/commando with flame 4. I have a second account with this combo and I wiped out the entire rebel base on Rori with my graul and the flame thrower. I did have my doctor/CM character backing him up with heals and buffs. I should not be able to take out an entire faction base by myself. There were 30+ faction soldiers there. I am also killing FS NPCs by the droves with this combo.Even 3 or 4 at a time.

It also means the Star Wars feel will again be reduced further. I am guilty of this now, but it is the only way to be successful at the game. I am not going to suggest anything because there are so many great ideas out there now. The DEVs just need to listen to their customer base who experience the game on a day to day basis across all the professions. With all due respect to TH all he knows is the brawler profession. His comment on the ranged profession being more powerful than the melee professionsis true only for BH and commando. Rifle, pistol, and carbine cannot compete with swordsman and TKA in combat whether PvE or PvP. I guess I could keep running and shooting in PvP.

Here's a repost of an idea I had about how Squad Leaders, rank,and Faction pets should work:

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I think that commanding troops in the GCW makes the game world feel more Star Warsy.

Assuming that the Devs instituted other changes, like preventing loot and XP when using Faction pets for non-Faction combat, I'd like to see the following things happen:

Ranks:

• Every Factioned player in SWG starts with the ability to call one Faction pet.
  
• Earning higher ranks allows players to call more powerful Faction pets, much like the Creature Handlers have CL spread around the entire tree. As you increase in rank, you are able to deploy more powerful troops. Call it "Command Level."
  
• Earning higher ranks also allows players to call more pets at a time. Perhaps allow an extra troop as a Master Sergeant or Warrant Officer I (basically halfway up the ladder) and then another one as a Colonel (the highest possible rank). Allow combinations of troops to add up to the officer's "Command Level," so that an ImperialColonel could possibly use a pair of high-end Dark Troopers and a low-level Radio Operator, three mid-level Stormtroopers, one top-tier ATST, or any other combination that fell within the permitted number of troops and "Command Level."

Squad Leaders:

• Novice Squad Leaders in a Faction get an extra Faction pet.
  
• Specializing in either of two of the branches of Squad Leader (not sure which branches)earns you the ability to call one extra Faction pet per branch.
  
• Working your way up either of the other two branches earns you the ability to call Faction pets of higher abilities, much like the new Creature Handler changes spread powers around the entire profession. This is still "Command Level."
  
• Mastering Squad Leader earns you the ability to call two more Faction pets, for a grand total of six Faction pets as a Master.

With this system, rank would matter, and Squad Leaders would be able to command formidable platoons of Faction pets. A Master Squad Leader who is a Colonel could potentially call out 9 Faction pets to fight - and with so many pets, they would almost certainly have to be garden-variety grunts. No way should anyone be able to command 9 high-level pets, but a platoon of basic Stormtroopers, sure, sounds Star Warsy to me.

This is the roughest of rough drafts, but I hope you'll add your ideas on how this could work.

AT-STs used properly can still be devastating in pvp, Play smart, don't just barrel into a bunch of rebels with it. Scout out and see if there is a commando. If so use snipers to target him and then send in the atst.

PLEASE JUST TAKE THE **edit** AT-ST OUT OF THE GAME IF IT'S GOING TO BE USELESS! IT'S JUST A FACTION POINT SINK POST PATCH, YOU'LL SEE LESS AND LESS IMPERIALS, YOU JUST SCREWED THE GAME.

I leave this game for 2 weeks and it just gets worse. When will the devs realize this ISNT "rebel strike" they have console games for that. The aspect of fun has turned more into frustration. Come on people. Even the the cannibals in cambodiea have more progress than this...QUIT NEFRING AT-ST and give it back the way it was to begin with.......

Ren

Bravo, somethings just need to be said.

I would also like to suggest perhaps a cap on the rebel faction's membership? I mean I dont really care, but he's right, the rebels outnumber Imperials 3-1 on Wanderhome. There are no safe places anymore. While that may be fun for the rebels, it kinda defeats the whole GCW theme when the Empire cant do ANYTHING.

BIZZ

Shame on you people. Stop with the spin.

You sit there and cry that commandos chew up the at-st, and that is why you are mad, but the reality of it is you are really mad about not being able to solo frickin Krayt dragons and farm holocrons.

If you are going to complain, at least be honest with it. Just tell everyone you think that soloing creatures that where not meant to be solo'ed, and farming holocrons with the most powerful pet in the game that requires no certification is fair.

Just yell....

I want the most powerful pet in the game without spending any skill points so I can solo Krayts and farm holocrons!!

It is not fair that I wont be able to do that any more.

Ohh, and the AT-ST is a useless faction pet? What does that make the rebel troopers?

Everyone can now only pull out one faction pet. At least your ONE pet is 1000 times better than the rebels. Shut up and be thankful, bunch of greedy whiners.

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Kurt_Mendel wrote:

I know you need to keep CHs happy since they're largest class in the game (but isn't that a problem? Shouldn't profession distributions be, in a well-balanced system, more or less equitable?). The fact is though, unless you guys want to continue shooting yourselves in the foot with this vicious nerf-give-nerf-give cycle, you're going to have to take something away without giving something else once and be done with it.

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Hey Kurt,

You'll never read this being on page 8 =p, but bravo for a well thought-out and reasonable post. I agree with everything you say, but this one bit I quoted above. You're on the right track, though. Some facts:

• CH's are the most populous profession


• The devs want, as you say, to have a game where things are well-balanced


• They must therefore get people to leave the CH profession, in order to balance things


• The only real way to do this is to cater to the hardcore CH's at the expense of the "dabblers."

They want to change things to make the hard core guys happy and piss the rest off into other professions. They can't *say* this is their intent, but it is, as it must be. It would really be cool if they could accomplish this profession shift by making other professions compelling enough to warrant a happy eager abandonment of CH, instead of a grumbling, nerf-brused abadonment, but sometimes it just isn't that simple. Besides, these are necessary changes to CH. The viscious cycle you see is absolutely by intent. Smack em, throw them a bone. Smack em again, throw them a bone. It's meant to drive the less dedicated CHs out. It's going to work, I think.

I also sympathise with the Devs. I can see them all sitting in a room someplace, before the game went live, talking about how powerful the AT-STs were, and thinking, "you know, we've got a more savvy audience than the average MMOG does, and they will understand that the Empire should be bigger and better, and we won't have to worry that it's unbalanced. It should be." And then the game went life, and sure enough,a zillion Imps, almost no Rebs, and Rebs slaughtered ugly style. Just what they were going for. But the whiners took over. And in the MMOG world, whiners always win. It's just the way of things.

I'm a Reb myself, and I enjoyed it when AT-ST's ruled. It was believable and challenging. This will make it more like a game, and less like Star Wars, which has it's good points too ... for this is, after all ... a game. Balance is more important that realism, which sucks for those of us who prefer the challenge of an unbalanced system, but we are in the extreme minority, and they have to play to the masses. It's the only way to make money. And make no mistake, they are here to make money.

PS) Number of faction pets available should be tied to rank. But everyone else has already said that and it's already been ignored, me adding my own $0.02 is pointless. Thanks =).

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FinderComnet wrote:

Quote from Lorelli* can you please explain to me how a flamethrower effects something that is plated in metal?

Easy... please go to your oven. Turn on the top burner on high.... Place a pot on top of that burner... DoNOT put your hand in the pot... no point in getting yourself hurt. Now poor water in that pot... Place lid on the pot. Ok... now we can say the water is encased in metal correct? Now after a few moments... open the lid... see the steam rise from the pot? See how heat effects things in metal?

Ok now moving on... think of that water being a driver for the AT-ST. Also think of the water as a fuel source. Think of the water as the wiring and batteries in that AT-ST.

Now apply all this to a weapon built to actually not only heat water but to actually damage things. Its pretty easy to come up with the reasons heat DoT's work on AT-ST's.

I am not meaning to be condescending. Its just that,it IS that simple.

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In your example yes heat will effect water that way, but it is a bad example.

The heat on a stove is constantly applied to the pan. The pan is not moving around or getting shot at.

A flame thrower can only stay on target for so long before it starts to burn the user. Flame throwers have a limited supply of fuel whereas a stove does not (unless you are useing a propane camping stove).

All these factors would come into play if you were useing a flame thrower on a tank. Sure the flames are hot but it would have to be hotter than the forge fires that made the steel plate to melt it.

Sure the metal would me hot to the touch but we are not talking about some WWII Sherman tank either.

Ohh, and one more thing, now that I exposed the true reasons for the crying, I would like to say in all honesty, the AT-ST needs a way to be repaired, and also needs to be reduced in cost.

As far as the flamethrower not making any sense working on a "tank", I beg to differ on that.

First of all, I am sure this flamethrower is not from WWII. Like all weapons in this game, it is futuristic and probably advanced. I am sure that the fuel is not just a midly flamable "gas" that gets shot out with a gentle burst. In the age of light speed travel and battle stations the size of moons, it is not much of a stretch to imagine some super heated, high temp burning fuel that is hot enough to burn metal/mineral.

If I can fly at the speed of light, then I can melt some armor with some burnable fuel.

Second, the AT-ST is a scout vehicle, I imagine it is equivelent to the Bradley fighting vehicle of today. I think AT-ST stands for something like A(ll) T(Terain) S(cout) something...

While it does have armor, it is not the invincible beast some of you think it should be. After all, how tough is something that was destroyed in RTOJ by a bunch of teddy bears with sticks?

If you would have read my earlier post, I also stated I did not agree that the Flamethrower should not be the weapon that does this damge to the AT-ST... it should be the Plasma Canon. A weapon meant to do heavy damage to such. The Flame thrower is an Anti-personel weapon not a vehicle destroyer.

Sorry if I missed it in the notes but we need a way to heal AT-ST wounds. Storing them will slowly heal damage but right now their wounds never heal. Fix that and they may actually be playable in PVP again. Thank you.

Yuns