Development Cycle Archive

IMO, something need to be done about turrets. Currently, turrets only help with a base defense on the day they are placed due to the fact that anyone can come by at 5am and destroy all turrets. This leads to much frustration on the part of players who have done faction grinding to purchase the turrets and leads to loss of interest in GCW, placing and defending bases.

A few possible solutions-

-Vastly increase HAM for turrets (not the best solution, ie, high-ham turrets in conjunction w/ defenders= impossible to attack bases)

-Make Turrets invincible (not a bad idea, once HAM is depleated they cease functioning until they can be fixed via base repair cycle, also a good resource sink, additionally adding the possibilty of smugglers being able to slice turrets to shut them down would add much needed functionality to the GCW role of smugglers)

-Vastly reduce faction point cost for turrets (they may destroy them at 5am every morning, but replacing them is quick and easy)

-Make Turrets craftable by players (with resonable resource costs, players could turn out turrets much more quickly than they can grind faction, also could help with the depressed market for architect craftables)

Any of these solutions would help, a few of them would actually have the possibility of re-energizing some facets of the GCW. Turrets should not be something that one player with a large hammer can trivialize, nor should they be such a costly item for their life expectancy. As an architect, I of course would love to be able to help out in the GCW by manufacturing turrets (perhaps needing some help from WSs for power handlers or ASs for armor layers) Overall however, anything would be an improvement on the current situation.

Apprenticeship Points

I am not sure what experience others have had with this particular phenomenon, but I am personally quite tired of having to teach people to be able to master a profession. It has little to no bearing on the Star Wars genre at all, and does not reflect any real system of training or advancement in the world. One does not need to be a teacher to become a master, and in fact many of the greatest masters of their arts in the world refuse to take on students as it would detract from their focus on their art.

Let us please have this removed, as it has no bearing on the genre and brings nothing to the game.

Skill Points

As more and more time has passed since I began playing this game on Day One, I have come to realize that the skill point system utilized is completely bass ackwards. There is no reasonable foundation to have a skill point limit on professional advancement, as it defies everything we have seen in Star Wars and the EU. Both Fetts were Master Bounty Hunters AND Master Armorsmiths, capable of making their own Mandalorian armor. Yet, in the current profession system it is impossible to create this combination, and even if you could your Bounty Hunter would have to also be a Master Tailor and Master Droid Engineer to construct the armor.

It is simple absurdity that any character in the game should have a limit on what they can learn. Modifier caps, certainly, and perhaps even restrictions on what could be worked together if it was necessary, as in perhaps only one profession from any particular categorical grouping at a time. One brawler elite, one ranged elite, once medical elite, one crafting elite, one entertainer elite, one hybrid, etcetera.

It should ABSOLUTELY be possible for a single character to accomplish all of these things together, and not have to restrict themselves on their capabilities.

If you are concerned about people getting bored with the professions, I doubt this would do it. If anything it would open up a vast set of possibilities for combining and recombining professions on a much greater scale, to find that "perfect" combination.

Profession Balance in SWG

There is currenlty a growing sentiment in the community that several professions should be removed from the game, as they detract fromt he Star Wars experience. I do not agree that they should be removed, but there should definately be some serious rebalancing of the professions to bring about a more worthwhile combination for characters.

Firstly, I think that the melee/ranged professions need to be COMPLETELY overhauled. Have you ever seen a star wars character in any movie or book toting a scythe across the desert to slice and dice Tuskens with? Neither have I. Brawler professions were rare and mostly archaic in the Star Wars continuity, except for among a few races like the Trandoshan, and they were practically unheardof outside of groups like the Force witches and the Jedi. Advanced weaponry designes and defensive technology rendered brawler professions virtually obsolete against modern combat tech millennia ago within the Continuity.

Secondly, something has GOT to be done about the weapon damages and capabilities. Does anyone here honestly think that a blaster pistol would do so little damage that it would take 30 shots to bring a target down? Neither do I. And yet the way the weapons work now one can spend half an hour killing a single monster, while an equal-level brawler profession can shred that same opponent in under 60 seconds. Anyone else detect a problem with that?

Thirdly, and most importantly, the way the professions are setup now within the skill point system is UTTERLY ABSURD. It takes 217 points to master Bounty Hunter, and for that unthinkable expenditure you get NOTHING. Smuggler runs into the same problem that they have nothing in their higher trees to justify their point expenditure, and I can only wonder what the hell you people were thinking in releasing a game that was not just incomplete, but apparently left so deliberately or through gross incompetence.

Who the hell is in charge down there? Anybody?

1. Add Tantel Armor biceps and bracers. When Lando was in Jabba's Palace he absolutely had shoulders and bracers (but his pants were unarmored).


2. Add a (RP) tag over players who have checked the roleplayer box on the community menu. This would make things much simpler when trying to talk to someone who is roleplaying.


3. To my knowledge, every profession but fencer has a lootable schematic for a new weapon (Razor Knucklers are still in development, but at least they're working on it). I don't really know what to suggest here. Maybe some sort of a whip or flail?


4. Sometimes I can use factory crates from inside a crafting station, and sometimes I can't. It doesn't really matter to me which the final answer is, I just want something consistent (it would be great if we could use them though).


5. Give medium houses a higher storage capacity. I understand that they cover the same number of lots as a small house, but the maintenance is higher. Right now it's actually more reasonable to geta second small house and use it's storage space.


6. Somehow the structure used for slaver camps has lost its texture and is now solid black. What happened?

That's about all for now I think.

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oaki wrote:

Mechanics:

Give someone the ability to repair and modify your speeders. A mechanic would be able to increase the quality of your speeder via hit points, decay times and terrain negotiation. Leave the original speeders to master artisans while giving our speeders an upgrade in a mechanic tree.Also a mechanic would be able to originally craft your speeders better thana master artisan.

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I was thinking it would be cool for smugglers or artisans to make power-ups for vehicles. Ones that can either boost speed, make you faster over water and mountains, or better defense. Also if you could make the need for Spynet opertives obsolete, unless you are a novice. Like you get bio signals with the mission, but since novices can't use droids yet the signals are of no use so you need to speak with an operative. Either that or maybe make it so you could get some info from Smugglers (since they have underworld connections) that way you can get missions and signals from remote places.

A few things:

1. Could it be possible to make multiple characters on a server? I mean still have the same limit of characters as now, but be able to make more than one on a server. It is done with other MMORPGs and worked. Plus, many people already have more than one, since they spent the extra money to get 2 games and 2 accounts (some of us can't afford to do that though).

2. Droids: still, the humanoid models (LE Repair, Medic, Protocol) are unable to be named? Can this be fixed? Perhaps even let us use more realistic names that use numbers and dashes (R2-D2, etc...). This would really help to make the game more accurate.