Development Cycle Archive

I'm actually quite tired of seeing the loot drops outsell weaponsmith Master items, simply because they have mind disease/poisons.

A simple solution? Re-introduce the concept into player-crafted items.

Instead of dropping weapons with these DoT enhancements, create permanent weapon enhancements that add mildly random attributes.

You could also vary the strength of these enhancements by creature type, or NPC strength.

For instance, in the final crafting of a weapon, a Nightsister's Tainted Blood (vial looted from a high-level NS) could be used in a seperate "enhancement" slot, allowing the Weaponsmith to effectively coat the inner barrel with this enhancement, adding a disease DoT to the final stats.

Instead of having direct stats, simply organize these by type of damage (poison, disease, etc), and relative strength (weak, powerful, extraordinary). It might even be prudent to allow for the rare overall damage enhancement, or some noteworthy range modifiers.

A few examples:

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Damage type: Acid DoT (Treat as Poison)

Damage Strength: Strong

When added to the weapon during crafting, random rolling (with gates on both minimum and maximum values, according to the base strength) will determine attributes. When appplied to the weapon of choice (melee or ranged), the final results might look like this:

Type: Poison

Attribute: Health

Uses: 2130 (If at all possible, removal of the -1 factormight create a more fluid weapons market)

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The potential of this is staggering. By making it a crafting-process enhancement, but not a permanent one, you afford weaponsmiths a revolving door for PvPers who want that bonus present constantly. Having no means of recharge, the depletion of this bonus leaves a standard weapon in its wake. However, having a use-count of 1000, at minimum, guarantees interest over and in conjunction with standard powerups.

A few more ideas and examples:

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Damage Strength: Extremely Deadly

Type: Poison

Attribute: Mind

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First, I thought this was a concept thread so I didnt make any reference to existing problems and fixes for them. However, since most posts seem to be about the state of the game I will add my two cents. I will also make reference to EQ alot since I figure you are the same company that made that great game, but appearently have missed something vital when making this one.

1. The mind ham bar - Change it to act like mana in EQ. Meaning it gets used up when specials are used. The more someone spams specials the faster it is gone and then oops cant do anything. There are only two professions in that game that can directly effect the mana bar, and that doesnt kill a character, it just cripples their ability to do things. We wouldnt have so many cries for nerfs or have so many people with stat migration towards mind if you eliminated the mind kill in pvp and in pve. Changing the way mind works would also eliminate mass spamming of specials - thus more strategy in pvp needed and teamwork.

2. Quests - Again, there have been so many people that left the game due to boredom. Even your quests are boring. Ex. Talk to jabba - go to waypoint - talk to flunkie - return to jabba - get 50 credits - talk to jabba - go to waypoint - kill some flunkie - return to jabba - get some ugly poster. etc etc. In EQ some quests are simple but most require alot of work and/or help with missions. In SWG most people have either already achieved mastery in 1 profession but more then likely in multiple professions. There isnt many things a master of any combat profession cant do - solo, let alone throw a doctor or combat medic into the mix for them. Where are the EPIC quests in this game ?, where are the Difficult quests in this game? where is a quest other then going to a waypoint and either talking to a flunkie and then immediately returning or killing a flunkie that even a non combat profession can kill. I could care less about a badge that said I have been to a cave....so what! and a reward of 50credits? you cant be serious? We all know a newbie cant even get into jabbas place till they build up so faction, by the time they get the faction they will have earned a heck of a lot more then 50 credits.

3. Variety - I feel I am playing Composite Wars. I know i said this previously...but it needs to be hammered home to you folks. In EQ there are penalties and benefits to wearing different outfits. Now I know your going to say but we have HAM penalties for heavier armor....ROFL any decent Doctor can wipe those penalties away in about 1 minute...AKA the buff. Where are the ability to move fast penalty? Where is the decrease in Combat penalty? Where is the benefit to wearing Tantel or Bone armor? Other then for looks there isnt any. Balance the pros and cons of armor.

4. GCW - what war? I know on the two servers I am on its almost non existent. And when it is going its a race to see how many combat medics and doctors can get into the mix. I should know I am both. whats the point of earning faction points? To build Bases? Turrets? Buy crappy armor? buy a weapon that cant hit a player standing still? Or how about some meaniless Tool chest? you get the idea. Where are my benefits for going out and taking on the opposition? For instance, someone mentioned earlier about 1 time schematics for armor to be crafted - now thats a great idea. Now I can actually fight a stormtrooper or whatever a rebel is.(a marine?). How about different schematics....you have the models for scout troopers already built, add snowtroopers and space troopers and How about for 100 million faction points Imperial Guard armor...now there is something to shoot for...something EPIC. Use the rank structure for alternate advancement. For instance a private gets squat..rofl...but a Sargeant.... can use points to boost their ranged defense or sniping ability or combat healing speed or etc etc. much like skill tapes, but permanent...then maybe we can have variety in the game instead of TKM/Rifleman templates or TKM/doctor or etc. you know the drill. this will get the war started back up, but please make the faction points needed high so it takes people along time.

5. Mastery of professions and new skills - ok seriously you people need to make it harder to master stuff.....Its sad when i see people hologrinding their 23 profession, and they did the previous 22 in the last two weeks. In EQ, except for the hard core gamer it takes a year or so to attain mastery. There is no incentive for me to play this game right now. I am at the top of my professions respectively, the only incentive is money or to help people hologrind. And to make it worse, when you do introduce new stuff you plop it in already acheived skill slots..AKA the speederbikes. Please tell me when the space expansion comes out you arent giving spaceship design to architects and plopping the Star Desroyer schematic in Buildings 1(extreme example, but you get the point). Again what would be the incentive if you do that? to go harvest more minerals? rofl...please.

6. Honesty - You really need to work on your human resource department. When you Hype a big deal about a publish, please make sure the product lives up to the billing. I prefer to hear from you that A. you are tryig something new B. You're not sure it is what we asked for C. it's only a stop gap measure while we get the real thing worked through. Then what you are currently force feeding us. AKA the droid publish, LMAO - so artoo can shoot a laser now. Oh but Artoo only has 1200 hitpoints - hmmn artoo goes up againt savage quenker - savage quekers eats artoo - artoo is now parts all over the ground - player cant believe they spent 120k on artoo with laser. In the wall paper you dont show artoo shooting lasers you show COMBAT DROIDS. Where are the combat droids? Talk about major community disapointment. Have you guys done a poll checking on suicide rate for DE's? Does someone in your dev department have a personal issue with droids and their makers? Heck I feel so bad for them I randomly tip them 100k just for advertising their title. Note any Master DE's on my servers come see me for handouts - poor little engineers.Devs do the right thing and give them and the community what we asked for. How hard is it for you guys to watch the star wars movies and go hmmn...IG-88, a bounty hunter droid...we can do that.

7. Tools - You stated to the community that this game was going to be player driven, i.e. the economy, the cities, etc. etc. Well the economy is excuse my french...Whack, the cities are empty and not used except two. Theed becuase you dont have to wait 10 minutes to shuttle and Coronet to get to the planets you cant from theed. Meanwhile there are any number of afk people spam shouts come here to my vendor at such and such creating the worst feeling a game can have, short of the Old Tunnel in EQ spamming. And now you have decided to make it worse with spam bots. Who is the genius that thought that one up?. Does SOE own stock in a RAM manufacturing company? Because if anyone haslower then 1 gig of ram walks out of those starports with all the new spam bots coming they will be stuck there for 20 minutes. Please give us the tools to make player cities more attractive to use, more mayoral controls, maybe starports for metropolis or larger cities. See my previous post for some of those ideas. Let us make them look more like cities too, with the limited enhancements to our cities they look like crap.

8. Color - Ok we can change color on our armor and tailors can change clothing colors and now Image designers will get more options too, thats a good start. Now how about you let architects in on that game too? I would like to see different color furniture, houses, plants, etc. etc. And while your at it , lets add more plants, more variety to that...I applaud those of you that have found graet ways to use existing pieces to make your homes nicer, but I think colorization would go along way. And plese allow the color mods and bikes, droids to be permanent. Allow Bio engineers to alter the DNA of a rancor to be blue if they want...Variety = less boredom more money for the crafters etc etc. Someone mentioned new clothing or variations on existing stuff. Please listen to them. I am sick of trying to make the same outfit look different from every other female I encounter...Its very hard to be honest.

9. Content - I know I mentioned quests earlier but I feel I need to speak of it again. In EQ every 6 months or so you guys add so much new content for both young and advanced characters that there isnt a player in that game that has done it all. Hmmn in SWG, i would say over 50% of the population has done everything they can do. And if they only get back on the game to hologrind or if they are like me to talk to friends, guildies or try and role-play. Bringing in new instanced dungeons will help, but serously you need to sit down with your programmers and hammer out 100 dungeons and 100 quests in one publish to keep long term players around. In EQ when you brought in Planes of Power expansion, there was still only a handfull of guilds and I am talking big bad guilds that could enter Vex thal. ROFL I can enter Geo cave with my two characters alone. The reason there was only a handfull was because it was very hard to get all the componets for the keys to enter....and once you were in your life span was counted in minutes if your groups werent ready for it. You put 20 pople in a group in Geo cave and I dont care how fast the spawns pop...The only thing achieved by those spawns is to ruin the economy of the server and allow everyone to have a Dxr6b weapon or whatever is dropping. Where are the big bosses? where is teamwork required to achieve a goal? Why isnt a legion of stormtropers overwelming my group of 20 rebels who want to go see the emperor? you get the point.

10. Player content - As mentioned in my previous post and has been mentioned by others as well - giveus a true PVP free for all arena schematic which can only be built in metropolis size cities or larger. allow the area inside of it to be completely everyman for himself/herself, allow owner of building to charge entrance to watch. This will allow us to host contest better and create player content. Let players post Bounties, to insure that it is not exploited make sure, there is no decay from BH bounty death. Allow us to post help wanted signs, other then in these forums, for services needed, like the poor Ranger class - so I can hire them to go get me a bunch of avian meat or whatever i need for them to track down for me. Allow the owner of a cantina to bump macro entertainers so they can have bands that actually play as a band in their cantina - which brings meto aside note allow bands which perform together as a band w/dancers to give better mind buffs or longer lasting ones at least. Player cities should be allowed to have npc's which can give quests. Also Player cities should be allowed to be all wookie or Mon Cal or whatever they like. Imp declared PCcities would of course be all human so anyone using their facilites would suffer a penalty if non-human. These are tools to be given to the mayor. Make the polotician class more intriguing - all they do know is allow people in the milita and make sure the city doesnt burn down from inactive player houses dissapearing. Which is obviously a problem otherwise you wouldnt have released a patch extending inactive player houses from destroying PC cities.

If any of this sounds too hard or impractical to do, or there arent enough people to sort through the ideas and respond properly to the community, why don't you hire a bunch of the people playing this game at minimum wage. Heck alot of these people dont have jobs and would love to work on the game that they play so passionately. I bet you can even get volunteers. And dont say you already have this with the corespondents in place...becuase apearently there is a communication breakdown between you. Feedback is welcome and wanted. I have yet to see some ideas from these open discussion made into a a thread where you say....hmmmn...that was a clever idea....Ok people we want to try and make this work.....now lets discuss the best way to implement it - since you are the paying and playing customer - how would you implement such and such idea. OK great.....here is response from dev such and such he is working on it....such and such dev says......no can do my Tandy 2000 computer cant make the models work without serious game bugs crashes etc......maybe we can try something else. OK mr. dev....lets try this. Now is that so hard to do? Or are all of you using the SWG as a testing model for EQ2.......If so let me know now so I can stop playing this game....Reopen my EQ account so I can go get all my uber loot and create my legacy item for EQ2.

Lastly, If you are going to make an apearence on these boards, try and answer something meaningful and not something that is a lame announcement like this...

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Jansem wrote:
The E3 expo on May 12th will show off the space exapnsion? Will we get to see it at all? They showed off the space exansion at last years E3 and you really had to work to find footage of it. If E3 is in a month, shouldn't there be quite a bit of hype and rumors around it by now? I haven't heard anything.

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You will get to see big chunks. There are no rumors because we havent spoken about it. Its all going to happen at E3.

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What the heck is that? How does that improve the thread or address the underlying problems which are causing people to leave the game left and right. Why are you even acknowledging that post in a IN-CONCEPT thread. If anything, shouldn't that be answered in Announcements or even....and this is a stretch....IN DEVELOPMENT thread.

P.S. Please forward this to Skywalker Ranch, I am sure George would be very interested about the state of this game which is built upon his franchise.

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/cheer!!!

Bravo Timak! Finally someone with great ideas!!! Up to you now devs.....

World Maker I like your Idea but that could spawn into a different proffesion - Poisoner or something but it could go with smuggler instead of being its own proffesion.

Icon Da'goon

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=pikeman&message.id=24017

Icon Da'goon

I posted this elsewhere and it was suggested I drop it in this forum:

I know there are lots of dangerous places in the game but I'm not referring to dungeons or Krayt Canyon, I'm talking about cities, cantinas and so called 'safe' areas.

When Luke visited Mos Eisley, he ended up almost getting creamed by the ugly bugger, Obi-Wan lopped off his armand Han popped a Rodian BH - all in the space of a few minutes. That is the kind of thing I expected from this game if I visited the 'seedier' cities. I guess thereis the usual crop of low level aggro MOBs in places like Moenia but they are hardly a challenge,

I was hoping for something like a couple of robbers spawning in a Cantina, with the sole intent of attacking and robbing one of the players. I would expect the server to choose one player at random and then spawn two NPCs at the same level as the player. The NPCs could then attack the player and, if they win, take any cashhe has on him (Or a fixed sum - say 10k). If they lose, then the player can rob them. I would expect the robbers only to be attackable by the player they are targeting, so that the outcome isn't a foregone conclusion.

As a bonus, it would sure make people who are AFK dancing think twice

It would also be fairly easy to programme a few 'heavies' who %TT a player and hurl insults at them, goading them into a fight - once again - a similar level to the player and attackable only by them.

I really think this would spice the game up a bit, introduce some uncertainty about wandering around the seedier towns and make the experience a whole lot more star warsy.

Cantinas now are dull, soulless places, no danger, no excitement - in fact hardly any real people at all. Imagine fights breaking out, dancers occasionally being attacked and insults flying around...

I'm sure this idea could be expanded to other parts of the game and would be interested to hear your ideas.

Ecrir Twy'Lar (Lowca)
Master Pistoleer/Master Creature Handler
Rutger Ma'fer (Corbantis)
Master Armorsmith/Master Artisan
Click me

I have finally become a WO1 in the Empire. As I see it right now, ranks within a faction (I've only played Imperial so far) are useless. There's only 2 things that I see of use for it: Larger maximum storage of FPs (yippee), and cheaper delegation of FPs to players once you become an officer.

Is it my understandingor isthat is it? It seems so shallow and I havesome heftyideas that could be used by both factions. Firstly, keep everything in place so far like FP costs for troops, gear, promotion, etc. Secondly get rid of the (IMO) stupid idea where I can only have one faction pet/trooper following me at any time, regardless of my rank. I can lead the same amount of men as a Warrant Officer I as I did a Staff Corporal... a big whopping ONE. Would it be better if you can actually lead a group of your own faction pets/troopers, all at a cost of FPs to yourself? The max. number of troops you can lead depends on your rank, and if you want to lead bonafide, large, strike forces or patrolsof troops (not counting players) you should have that capability... especially if you're an officer. I'm going to use the US military as far as rank, responsibility, unit sizes go but will take some serious liberty for SWG. The ranks I've seen so far for SWG are for Imperials, so the Rebs could still translate into it more easily.

NON-RATES- Private thru Lance Corporal- lead2 trooper max, no AT-ST's.

NCO (Non-Commissioned Officers)- Corporal, Staff Corporal, Sergeant- lead5 troopers max, again no AT-ST's.

SNCO (Staff Non-Commissioned Officers)- Staff Sergeant thru Master Sergeant (I couldn't see a Sergeant Major rank to promote to)- SNCO's may lead10 men. Again, no AT-STs.

WARRANT OFFICERS I & II, and - May lead15 men just like the SNCO's and still no AT-ST's available to them.

1st/2nd LIEUTENANTS (Field Grade Officers)- May lead 15 men, just like the WO's (Warrant Officers), but may now access and lead a single AT-ST that counts towards his max total for command.

CAPTAIN (Still a Field Grade Officer)- A field officer rank that many officers look back to as the "best of times." May lead 25 men w/ still a single AT-ST for support and counting towards his total.

MAJOR, LT.COLONEL, COLONEL- Lead26, 27, 30max respectively, andmay nowincludetwo AT-ST's for support. Starting at Major, a player may now finally requisition faction bases. This shows that at these ranks a player is now a large unit commander, like batallion size (roughly 1000 men)in real life, even though my SWG numbers definitely don't show that.

BRIGADIER, MAJOR, LIEUTENANT GENERALS, and full GENERAL- Lead 40, 50, 60, 70 men respectively as his own strike force. May include 3, 4, 5, and 6 AT-ST's respectively to their ranks. Starting at Brigadier General, a player may now requisition the 2nd largest base available. I can't remember the name of it though. In real life, men of these ranks lead divisions, corps, armies, etc. In other words, VERY large formations but we can't have players running around with 16k-150k troops, can we?

HIGH GENERAL & SURFACE MARSHALL- The biggest wig a player can wear with a sizeable command. Can lead 90 and 100 men respectively. May also include up to 10 and 15 AT-ST's, respective to rank. It is at this rank a player may finally requisiton the faction's Detachment HQs.

NOTE: I still haven't figured how to break down what defenses are available to what rank and if any FP discounts (very minimal) should apply, depending on rank.

Now, I know players will be rolling their eyes, sighing, and saying,"Great, we're going to have a bunch of guys walking around with 70 Stormtroopers and 3 AT-ST's all over the place!" I see the risk in that, but I also suggest this: Make promotion costs to get to and moving up in the Officer ranks 50-75% more expensive. This should slow down all but the most hardcore faction players. Also, keep in mind that all these troops and support (AT-STs), defenses, bases, etc.cost Faction Points. If you get your s**t together and can actually field your max. number of troops (like all decent troopssuch asSTs, not the cheap guys) with proper support, people will know you have power within the faction. Add to this any players who join your party/forces for a raid, attack, etc.

You may also say that a player leading so many troops will be too confusing. I beg to differ: Remember, you can give the individual faction pet/troopers specific triggers for specific actions. EXAMPLE: I give all my regular Stormtroopers an Attack Command of "AT" while I give all my Assault Troopers (Hand to hand STs) "AT1" as their trigger to execute the same Attack Command. This enables my "tanks" to close in, harass any targets (including of course opposing faction players) while the normal Stormtroopers plink away as they should.

Also another thing such high ranking players can do is delegate some of their units to follow instructions from players who are part of his attack force. EXAMPLE: I give player TH-SixOneFive, an Imperial Staff Corporal, command of 5 of my precious Darktroopers to lead a crucial part of our attack while the rest of us pin the enemy and keep them busy.

Again, please keep in mind that if my suggestion works, it would be very rare to see a high ranking faction player commanding his full set of troops and base. With a more expensive cost throughout the Officer ranks, it should keep the number of high ranking players lower than what it is now. It should be slower once you hit those ranks. Combine this with the FP costs to get good troops and losses from fighting, it may keep the number of troops down unless the player knows what he's doing leading his men and is successful. Help from his friends and fellow faction players can go a long way in assuring his success... and maybe rewardother playersas he sees fit, "TH-SixOneFive, I commend you for your bravery. As a reward, you have permanent command of the surviving 4 Darktroopers and 10k credits. Your actions in the battle near Coronet was exemplary! Continue your service to the Empire!"

Notice that all of these changes apply only to the OVERT player. There should be a bigger reason in being an overt member of a faction than PvP and wearing a specific type of armor (ST, Marine).

I don't forsee huge battles between Rebel/Imperial Surface Marshalls facing off against each other near Theed every day for example. What I would see happen more frequently is this: It was said3Overt Rebel players attacked Bestineand caused quite a nuisance, killing several STs and some unwary Imperial players. In their withdrawal, acovert Imperial followed themand traced them to Anchorhead. He reports this via group chat to a friend of his, an overt Imperial Army Captain. The Captain, infuriated over theembarassment the Rebels inflicted upon Bestine, decides a raid into Anchorhead is in order. He musters 20 Stormtroopers of varioustypes, an AT-ST,and 2-3 fellow Imp players, and sets out. With a sizeable force like this the Rebels will either run away or be crushed.Little does he know, this is what the Rebels wanted. The 3 Rebels attacking Bestine had the intent of forcing Imperial action. What they had in store for an Imperial response in Anchorhead were about 10 more players hiding out in various facilities in the town, waiting for the command to attack the overconfident Imperials.

Let the overt players make a real battle! This is a Galactic Civil War, and the players should be able to make the name truly apply to the game.

P.S.- I'm still having trouble as to how I can make this a good deal for the Rebels, since, by nature of the SW movies they didn't have access to big gear like the Empire did. They should have some sort of disadvantage since standing up, toe-to-toe with the Empire, was bad for their cause, i.e. Hoth. I would say a more devious, clever, way of business will play in favor of being a true Rebel player in the Galactic Civil War. Please post your comments or whether or not I've been playing SWG too much. And remember, my main character just made WO1 so I haven't seen everything up to Surface Marshall just yet.

END POST & One more thing: It was mentioned in the orginal forum I posted this that lag would be a big problem if several surface marshalls decided to go at it and whip out their mini-armies. I suggested a 50-75% increase in the cost of progressing into & throughout the officer ranks. If you REALLY want to slow that down, I suggest maybe even a 100% or more increase in the FP cost for Officer promotions. What this does, as in real life, is it makes a "pyramid" in the rank structure. More players will be in the bottom, wider section: the Enlisted. Fewer players will have the dedication to get into the Officer ranks. Only the most hardcore will get into the big ranks, i.e. Generals and Surface Marshalls. Let's face it: In regards to FP costs, at least in the Empire, guys have their hands full with just earning enough points for a set of Stormtrooper Armor! And these guys are humans! The much more dedicated, hardcore, Faction players can really make a difference in this way. Attaining a good Officer rank and a sizeable force of troopers & players could be a much more prestigous thing and puts real meaning to the Faction Ranks.

"If they can be fooled, they can be killed."
Un-Nerf the AT-ST. Why? Here's Why...
Are you an X-Wing:Alliance Fan? Check this out...
... and this one too, while you're at it.
Loyalty to the Empire!

Maako,Master Bounty Hunter/Rifleman Intrepid
Luke: "Is the dark side more powerful?"
Yoda: "No, It is quicker, easier, more seductive."

I said this a while back;

Atmouspheric music which can be played on entry to tents,houses, cantina's, guild hall's and town hall's. The music could be selected from your maintenance terminal with options such as loop, play on entry, on and off.

Songs could include;

General Versatti.
Imperial High Command