Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Publish 8 Mini Publish Testing Feedback: Image Designer Revamp
Nom-AU wrote:
Question: How often do you actually migrate your stats?
I personally only migrate them once --- all to mind -- being a master doctor i go into combat buffed all the time. Say i wanted to migrate my stats to grind artisan, wouldn't it be nice to have that done in 10 minutes instead of waiting a week before i can leave it?
My two cents, I think it's a great idea for the Image Designer stat migration!
MD would not be affected by nerfing of stats migration.
Because you can self buff, you don't have to concern yourself with encumberance on armor, and special HAM cost. But the rest of might not have full buff all the time to enjoy this freedom. Minor HAM changes are often made with new equipment purchase, newly acquired special, etc...
DarkCable wrote:
Curious........
How many other online games let you change your stats after creating a character?????
--
DarkCable
I for one actually really love all of the proposed changes of the ID revamp and it will add alot more color to the game and spruce up some social aspects as well.
Thanks devs!
I also thinnk that you guys are whiners. I never hear anyone complaing about having to get their weapons sliced only by smugglers, or only getting buffed by doctors. Just deal with it, or become a master image designer yourself.
~Zonko '
Master Image Designer ( I Image design for free!)
Master Medic
trooperness wrote:
I also thinnk that you guys are whiners. I never hear anyone complaing about having to get their weapons sliced only by smugglers, or only getting buffed by doctors. Just deal with it, or become a master image designer yourself.
~Zonko '
Master Image Designer ( I Image design for free!)
Master Medic
Well, thats how Free Market capitalism works, but I get your point.The trouble is, in a real world system, the fact you need tosupport yourselfyourself, pay overheads and similar matters, limits thedesirability to give something away for free. The only reason to do so (unless you are aphilanthropist) is to use it as a way of selling another bundled product, or to eliminate competition and hope the monopoly comission doesn't nail you. Healthy competition is good for the economy, but deliberately/carelessly destroying your competition and making them financially insolvent is not only potentially harmful to the economy but wrong - the fact that it is acceptable in many economies does not make it right, much as murder, rapine & pillagein war is still a wicked thing no matter what theaccepted normsof the time are (not a fan of subjective morality, that sort of arguement is often an excuse for many terrible things).
As these factorsare not so muchthe case in the virtual world, a player canbypass the real world business paradigm. ID does not have a running cost and a significantlywealthycharacter does not need the credits so would likely rather have the positive feedback gained from the giving of a free service - even though ultimately they are damaging the profession as a profession.
If in the real world, anyone could walk up to a terminal and generate a reasonable amount of cash by going out and shooting a few critters or running a few minutes delivery, maybe we could properly use existing business models, as it is- in SWG money can be effectively produced from no-where which means the only true commodity is time, with player talent and luck being fuzzy factors. We, as players, need to act with some amount of responsibility to maintain the economy so it feels real, it feels we are playing professions as professions and that our time doing our jobs is rewarded properly. Perhaps if IDs needed some materials to work with, even if cheap to make, they would be more viewed as a service that should charge.
I very much agree on the latter point that the service part has been damaged through the ability to ask for a particular 'number', though funnily enough thats how real worldsalonsoften work - well ones that lackproper stylists. The advantage of a sci-fi background like SW is that creating a virtual picture first or making a temporary change to advise the client is possible which makes the process as it is now more interesting, and combine artistic interpretations with the ability for the customer to make the final decision.
Ok here is the real nuts and bolts of this
1) The Image designer changes are neat but it is clear it will not attract more people to the profession
2) People do not do stat migrations often enough to warrant more people going to ID to get paid. The attaction is not enough
3) Newbs will be penalized by those very few hard core ID's by cost and newbs by the way are the once that need to migrate the most
4) If you can find an non hologrinding ID and you have to migrate stats I cannot think of a person that would not pay to have it done faster.
5) 1 point migration per 10 minute tick is slow enough for normal migrations
Summary
Best thing to do is
1) Keep stat migrations the way they are
2) Still allow the ID's in the new scheme to do them faster so those few die hard ID's have a skill to sell. Heck if I have to migrate I will look for one to have it done in 10 min, but if I can'f find one I should still be able to do the slow migration.
Makaldren wrote:
trooperness wrote:
I also thinnk that you guys are whiners. I never hear anyone complaing about having to get their weapons sliced only by smugglers, or only getting buffed by doctors. Just deal with it, or become a master image designer yourself.
~Zonko '
Master Image Designer ( I Image design for free!)
Master Medic
Hmm, if you image design for free thenhow are others goingto make a living from it? People giving away services that provide the income for others can ruin it for those seeking to make the service a paying career, as much as grinding crafters selling at a loss spoil it for dedicated crafters supplying a niche.
By all means, the odd freebie is nice but like holo-grind dancers who afk-macro's read 'do not tip', openly advertising your services as free limits the option to charge for others. So, those who wish to roleplay a working ID find it difficult to do so if there is an expectation that the service can be gained for free.
This is, in fact, how capitalism works. You lose customers unless you can compete on some combination of price and quality of product. If your competitor has an unbeatable price, you better have unbeatable quality. Service factors in somewhere in the middle.
The fact that one ID can't differentiate themselves from another is the problem, *not* the fact that someone is offering services for free. Since you can't compete for quality of product because everyone's the same and you can't compete for price because it doesn't get cheaper than free you'll have to compete for Service.
If you can give someone good, sound advice in how to achieve a certain look in their character then you'll still find you have customers. If anything it's something of a weakness of the new publish that players can directly view the Image Designers work. No longer can you have customers come to you saying "Make me look stronger" or "Make me look more serious" you'll now have customers saying "Give me hairstyle #52, Lips #5 and cheekbones #25". The service aspect has been removed and you may as well be droids into which customers can punch their own designs.
You were selling a service before, not a product. Now you're just a proxy for a Character Crafting Station.