Development Cycle Archive

Thread: In-Concept Open Discussion (Week Ending 3-15-04)

DathoImilli
Fri Mar 12, 2004 3:20 pm
#170

Probably too late this week to have this read but I jsut passed over a post that Q-3PO made explaining the shuttle wait.


Basically ithe 10min is to keep us from "teleporting" all over the galaxy i.e. give some realism to the game. The other idea behind the wait is to allow socializing and chance meetings that would not otherwise happen.


As it is now, we all stand around for the 10min and then all teleport to our specific destination. The social aspect works fine when everyone isn't afk.


What if the shuttle came every 5 minutes, we used our tickets and had our characters sent into a large ship of some sort. Everyone going to bestine starport from theed would be in the same "ship". I say ship but I really mean a big room that is textured to look like we are in a cargo hold or a passenger compartment. Maybe even have different ticket prices for different classes, ie. first class is plush seating cantina-like, and regular is just a cargo hold, even cheaper tickets get you stuffed in a storage bin that someone smuggles you across in.


We sit around in there for the remaining 5 minutes socializing and discussing our plans for when we reach bestine and then we are loaded into bestine. It would give more realism to the whole space travel idea, which to be honest with you the 10min wait isn't doing it.


Just a thought, I realise it may be complicated to do, but i wouldnt think it would be too much of a headache. Plus solving the shuttlewait issue would win over a bunch of people that curse the devs every 10min.






DATHO IMILLI [SPA] MASTER KILLER OF TIME
"I'm a problem. I'm inside computer." - Ulikes
"you and a bag of dead butterflies should get together, and make a game together. see how it turns out." - Tankimus
"figure out how to use a keyboard without looking like you're chewing on it" - Treesquid
"Thom, are you a phone noob?" - Mr. Bubble
tunerspeeder
Fri Mar 12, 2004 4:08 pm
#171
Well i whould like to see the preformace car/and or speeder world brought to SWG i think we need alot more vehicels than the lame old speeders. This whould bring a add and much need aspect to the game... i think i whould also be wise to create "car" dealerships, so the carecter whould have to buy the vehicles from a NPC this whould limit thedistribution of the vehicles, so that every one whould not be driveing around in these "super speeders". I also bleleve that thay should coust a good amount of money.... so the rich can have another way to show off there money.. heh I think it would grate to see flying Mercedes-benz SLR's, and Audi LeMans Quattros flying around every were..... but thats gest my opinon..



J'nik Dell~Bria

<{TKM}>~<{Master Medic}>~<{Novice Creater Handler}>

<{Master Marksmen}>

CassieDancer
Fri Mar 12, 2004 4:49 pm
#172






First, I would like to mention a pet peeve of mine that has only been exhaspirated by the Holocrons. Being a Master in the game has become essentially meaningless. Macro'd holo grinders are completing Mastery of a profession in a few hours in some cases, and yet know nothing about the profession they are supposed to be a "Master" of!



I understand that macros have a place in the game, particularly in combat where you want to do a combination of moves and don't have the dexterity to do all the typing/keystrokes. But I propose that you completely do away with the ability for a macro to call another macro. This will prevent grinding, except by 3rd party utilities which are already forbidden, particularly if there is a reasonably short character limit placed on macros.




Second, I would like to propose that there be a way for "complete" characters to progress in the game. I'm not interested in giving up my current professions just for the sake of doing the others. I feel that a MMORPG should be about Role Playing more than just how much of something you can kill, or how many skills you can master in a week. I spent a lot of time, and thought, creating my character and I have used all my skill points achieving that. I don't want to change that just to become a Jedi or because I need to be a different profession to "accomplish" anything.




But I would like the opportunity to fill in a few gaps. A character shouldn't suddenly become frozen in ability just because they used all their skill points--learning is a life-long process! Continual use of an ability, or weapon, or whatever, should make you better. However, you can't make it competely limitless in an online game because of the "power gamers". So:



Allow players, once they have used all (or nearly all, maybe points < 3) their skill points to earn additional skill points, but with limits.


  • limit the skill point gain to only 1 or 2 points at a time (only 2 if something outstanding is done) and only allow a gain every few days. This would limit the skill point gain to, at best, 7-10 points per month.

  • only award skill points for an outstanding action; doing 100% of the damage on an opponent that /consider's red, completing an NPC quest, etc. And by NPC quest, I don't just mean destroy missions, but delivery missions as well.

  • skill points would be awarded randomly. Say 1 out of 200 or 1 out of 1000. So even when you are eligible for a skill point gain, it isn't guarenteed that you get it.

This would allow you to flesh out those little bits of your character over time. Also, I would hope that has the game progresses, additional skills and abilities would be added to the various professions (as well as new professions such as driver or pilot). The skill point gain would allow established characters to include the new material without giving something up or getting it "for free".


When new professions are introduced, such as pilot with the space expansion, allow characters to go to "school" to learn the new profession:



  • limit characters to attending "school" to once a month or once every 3 months to prevent suddenly gaining all the new professions at once.

  • have attending "school" cost a fair number of credits, and perhaps some skill points as well.

  • the "schools" consist of a series of quests and/or missions to complete the school. To add to the RPG flavor, tutorials on the new professions could be wrapped into the content.

  • at the end of the "school", the character recieves "Novice" in the new profession as well as perhaps 10-20 skill points to spend on that profession. The number of points earned would based on performance in the school and a random factor.

  • completing "school" gets the character a diploma (badge) and that character can never go to that "school" again. If the character surrenders a profession, they can never get it back via "school".

The school concept could be expanded to cover existing professions as well. Have schools for newly introduced professions could offer "specials" that make them cheaper for the first 3 months or so. After that, going to school would cost a large number of credits and some skill points. Say charge 10 skill points (for established characters earned over time as above) and 500000 credits to go to school. This would allow established characters to eventually, over a long period of time, gain more professions.


It is all about growing and enriching the Star Wars world. The more experienced players with their established characters contribute a lot to the environment, and yet the very fact that they are established reduced the desire to play those characters.


- Cassie, the Dance Hall Girl




- Cassie, Dance Hall Girl
[Cassiopia Darkstar on Chilastra]
LordJeckel
Fri Mar 12, 2004 5:13 pm
#173
Iand other friends have the problem of mastering a profession and then after this you do not have many points left to persue and get deeply involved in other professions. We would like it greatly ifwe could somehow buy points or get them another way. It does not really matterif they are challenging to get because this would add even more challenging yet rewarding opportunities to explore. Just as long as eventually you can work your way up to gaining more points. Thank you



Lord Jeckel
Arnwald
Fri Mar 12, 2004 5:16 pm
#174
About mastering professions :


How about lowering the needed XP by 50% (more or less) on professions we already mastered?
Drazzule
Fri Mar 12, 2004 5:28 pm
#175
LoganKnight I like that one. Would add a interesting feal and look to the game.



Remember, It's not just a game. It's a monthly Expence.
surtrsfire
Fri Mar 12, 2004 5:42 pm
#176
The planets in the game are too homogenous, too similar in almost every respect. I cant help thinking that the game would be more interesting if each planet had its own set of political rules. By political I mean that each planet should have its own laws, for example, the presence of animals in some of the big cities. Coronet is possibly the most important city in the game, and a while in a city like Coronet you should be unlikely to find Kimogilas, Graul and Rancors walking around. I would think law enforcement would see to the safety of their citizens by banning vicious animals. It might actually give CorSec a use in the game by either fining or opening fire on CH's that dont abide by the law. Meanwhile, a lawless place like Tatooine or Lok wouldn't have such restrictions. A planet's laws would not only be about creatures (I am not against creature handling being one my self) but on certain types of weaponry, or spice, or droids that would be against the planet's laws. It would make game play a lot more interesting if people had to abide by a different set of rules on each of theworlds that are in the game and facing consequences for breaking those rules.
bouncingb
Fri Mar 12, 2004 10:21 pm
#177
oops .. . i didnt mean no guns ...


you are right .. guns are more futuristic and malee is more fantasy. ive watched several people with t21's do 15k-20k damage in a second on npc's.


as far as master head shot ... shouldnt be allowed while moving. i mean yeah ... you should be able to shoot ..but packing a huge ass rifle on the move shooting someone in the head (headspamming) is just hideous. i think the guns are probably fine, but the speed on rifles needs to be much much slower. i should be able to swing a sword or punch someone or lunge faster than a rifle could be loaded. im just saying there isnt a tradeoff from rifleman for loading ..they just keep blasting away for 2-4k damage 5 or 6 times a second. i mean even a powerhammer with 640 damage cant do the damage of a rifle.


wookies need armor ..thats a given


podraces? i like the idea of customizing pods or putting guns on them or something ... haha 187 in progress. races .. doesnt interest me much ...but im sure it wouldnt be difficult to add it to the existing coding of the game.


wookie cities would so much kick ass ...... bowcasters need some work though. there should be a given added bonus to ranged offensive stats when using one as well.


i do feel when you die .. if youve eaten food ... all the timers should subside ass all the stats have as well as capacitity to eat more.. meaning you should be completely hungry again.


buffs ..well .. if you die ..buffs should go away.


i think wookie roar should be meaningfull ... maybe a cool graphic and sound to go with it .. and something you can use more than once every 5 minutes.


and definitely have race orientated "special" professions ... or maybe 6 trees to reach master ... or 8 trees but only need 4 of them to get the "master" this would definitely add to the uniqueness of characters.


do way with macros entirely. NO MORE MACROS.


and someone down the line said remove the names of characters in the game ... that would so much kick ass... i mean if i was in battle in RL .. i couldnt read the nametags of say .. the Iraqis or the Afghans before deciding which one to shoot at.


make the Faction actually do something and for each rank to have a meaning or somehting special about it. maybe an added move or a choice of something as a bonus.. not some lame gun or worthless armor or furniture.


Bases definitely need to be looked into. i dunno what you could do with them xcept make them undestroyable and someone said simply take them over for a time or something.


hell i dunno ... i havent played the game in a few weeks due to the lack of fairness.




You are right though korin ... there will always be moaners and will always be a flavor of the day profession... its just when everyone bandwagons something ... its a sure sign that something isnt quite fair about what they are doing.



any imp that dont wanna get killed .... better step on out the back



ffutffut/tufftuff
WolfwoodCross
Fri Mar 12, 2004 10:37 pm
#178

Ok this is a flight of fancy but...


What if Droids were playable? This is how I think it would work.


Every player starts as a MSE Droid. They can then go around doing little MSE droid based missions and Delivery quests and such. They can then go to a Droid Engineer (Player or NPC) and have their Droid Brain/Memory Core installed into a different Chassis.


Each Chassis would have different abilities, and act as a pseudo Professions


Battle Droids would Marksman-esqu

Super Battle Droids would be Carbineers

Droideka would be Commandos

Probots would be Ranger/Rifleman

Protocol Droids would be Merchants

R2 Units would be Smuggler-esque

Medical Droids would be Medic/Doctor

Binary Load Lifters could be a type of Mining Profession

Those Treadwell Droids (with all the spindly arms ^_^) could be Architect/Tradeskill Profs.

IG-88 type droids as Bounty Hunters

Power Droids as a Droid Healer


Being a Droid would cost 250 Skill Points (a la Jedi). Each chassis would have its own set of Skill Trees. Obviously, each droid wouldn't 100% emulate the original Profession. Some abilities would not go to the droid, while the droid also would have its own unique abilities.


When a Player switches a Chassis, it would be like surrendering ALL of the skills you just learned, and you would have to start from scratch if you went back to an old chassis. As such, Droids would only be able to own one type of Chassis at a time.

sfsoldier
Fri Mar 12, 2004 10:54 pm
#179
i like the driod pc idea, but i think for the most part in SW droids were property, with a very rare exception or two.
Sloo
Fri Mar 12, 2004 10:57 pm
#180
I would like to request commands like /rotate up (1-180) and /rotate down (1-180).

It's the last item movement command missing and would give placement the final touch. E.g. to be able to lean a fishing pole on a table or to put items like the bol and krayt skull on a wall.
SilasErr
Fri Mar 12, 2004 11:51 pm
#181
Sloo, you're my type of scum! Fearless and inventive! The vertical rotation axis is something I think many people are looking for, and the implementation of this feature for players is certainly feasible.
Chickenbone
Sat Mar 13, 2004 1:06 am
#182
If we are overt, could we get the option of removing our name tags above our headand remove our blip on the radar when we are not in the line-of-sight of any player? Our name tags would only show up when we are targeted. This could make PvP more tactical....



*********************
Gorath: Aradjin
Intrepid:Thorus
Bria: Gorangutar
Starsider: Bien
*********************
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