Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Holobits?!?!?!
I can see an immediate problem with the specials having a timer and that is when you're fighting more than one creature. A time lag will deny the ability to defend against gank squads (factional or Jedi) or when you get multi-mob (can anyone say "social"?) attacks unlessthe mobs are also under the same restriction. In this case it's an even playing field and the combat is "slowed" down but the mechanics are identical to todays combat macro players.
Thunderheart wrote:
To your first point, the whole idea of economizing on moves is a key element that should really come through with the changes to combat. The challenge is to make it more dynamic and excited and not just make it a game of diminishing returns. It should be more like a recharging mana pool orsimilar type of mechanic where the player is challenged, but not hamstrung. With the new HAM, what will happen is rather than use specials until your bar is empty, you would use a special and wait for it to recharge ( just a couple of seconds) and then be able to use it again.
Thunderheart wrote:
Yes, Holobits.
It really is a great tradition for threads and I can't think of a better name, so Holobits it will remain.
For all of these items, the final answers are still being discussed and debated.In the meantime, I wanted to give you an update on some subjects everyone wants to hear about:
GeneralKerensky wrote:
In regards on how to give credit for those who have been mindlessly grinding away such as myself, is to at least give credit for the actual professions that were needed for our individual selfs progression, for example:
First Holocron - Master Merchant ------------------------------------------------> Skip one of the Trials
Second Holocron - Master Droid Engineer ------------------------------------> Skip second part of Trials
Third Holocron - Master Architect -----------------------------------------------> Skip third part of Trials
Fourth Holocron - Master Carbineer --------------------------------------------> Skip Fourth part of Trials
Fifth Holocron - Silent started RANDOM mastering of Professions ------> Give no credit as we chose to proceed hap hazardly and took a gamble.
This could be something as simple as giving us an option when we visit a particular quest NPC to allow us to proceed with credit to the next NPC quest, or to actually do the quest, for those of us who would enjoy roleplaying the process thru, which is more realistic in the first place.
I think giving credit to those of us who have done 20+ random professions would not be fair, its like your paying us for doing something that was not worth anything. We were gambling, and we lost, its life, so why pay off a gambler. If we had opened the slot with the right profession before these Patch 9 and Patch 10 then we won our bet, we beat the odds.
Though I have grinded over 40 professions between 3 different accounts, all I can say is I took a gamble and lost. I knew the first few Jedi on our Flurry server and was very envious, but I think earning my Jedi through the Jedi trials will give more meaning and respect than simply me randomly grinding professions any longer.
I just hope like others have stated that the Trials are soloable, by those who are masters in their professions. I really would rather see thinking quests and puzzles similiar maybe in some respects to the Hero of Tatooine Quest, though not with the complete randomness of spawn locations. I don't thinking testing my tracking ability for random spawns is a true test of a Jedi.
In anycase my two cents.
Earning your Jedi will have much more meaning after Publish 10 goes to live servers and as soon as is possible, I'll be posting about the translation of the efforts of all those people who have been completing professions on their way to becoming a Jedi. I can understand why it is such a burning issue and as soon as a couple of decisions are made internally, I'll be able to bring you the scoop.
JustG wrote:
Based on some detailed conversations with the Correspondents, as well as your feedback, we have already implemented some changes on TC & TC2 for the credit you receive if you unlocked.
As you know, those that have unlocked between publish 9 & 10 will be given all 6 Force Sensitive branches that they need to proceed to Padawan.
Now, based on our interactions with the community, you will also be given the experience necessary to purchase all four boxes in each branch.
So: Intro Quest, Exit Quest, and on to Padawan. You can still do the Force Sensitive quests if you desire to gain their specific rewards.
We will announce the proportional credit for those who have not unlocked soon. It will be fair as well.
Thanks,
- g
This is from JEDI ARCHIVES VOLUME2
Force Sensitivity
Players will have to complete a series of quests in order to enable their Force Sensitive Skills. These quests are for anyone who has not yet completed the existing Jedi path, regardless of how many professions they have mastered. These quests represent Jedi Revamp Part 2: The Jedi Trials which will be live in Publish 10. We will discuss the details in future Jedi Archives as we get closer to that publish.We know there are many of you eager to know how the switch to the new Force sensitivity path will affect you, sowe felt we needed to touch on the key points. Credit will be given to players for the professions they have mastered, and that credit is the ability to rapidly advance through the Force sensitivity path. These are skill boxes that enable small gains towards skills a player will be familiar with. These skill boxes will be "Force enhancements" that will augment their existing professional skills to simulate a fictional "Force sensitivity." For example, a player can purchase a box of Crafting Sensitivity and gain a small bonus to crafting. This simulates their character being more in tune with the Force so they may have slightly better reflexes, insights, etc. All these skills are passive and do not generate "Jedi visibility."
As per Devs we will all get credit for the amount of professions we have master if not unlock yet. Example if you mastered 30 out of 32 you will be 93.75% there to becoming FS.
Louis Solos
Alciril wrote:
Thunderheart wrote:
I've been reading the feedback with regards to the Merchant/Vendor changes.
On one hand, merchants need to be the vendor wranglers. There is no getting around tying vendor limitations to Artisan/Business skills and Merchant skills. On the other hand, I've been speaking with the team on the item number restrictions and I'm pretty sure we'll be able to get those limits raised to a suitable level.
No, TH. I'm sorry, but this is what people have been saying all along.
We simply don't want you to play mind games with us. Yes, you're going to announce low vendor limits in order to lower expectations. Then you're going to raise them somehwere along the line so that both sides can claim victory. We've seen it done with housing limits, and you're doing it again now.
Is a straight answer too much to ask for here? I'm sure you've been following the posts that were made over the weekend. Nearly everyone is unhappy about the changes. Why was this suddenly placed on TC? Why was the patch notes thread mysteriously deleted? You claim that you're going to be vocal with the combat and galactic civil war changes and put up documents before the changes even make it to TC. Why didn't we see any of the documents for this merchant change beforehand?
Better communication is the key here. You wouldn't see people getting hysterical if the changes were discussed before they were placed on test center. And please don't use the excuse that it's the test center and that things can and will be changed. There are *many* things that have gone to TC, were protested, and were placed on the live servers anyway. Being vocal and getting up in arms is the only recourse we have in order to get your attention now.
Yes I gave up Merchant in light of this new patch. I would have also liked to have the Dev team explain why they said that Pub 10 would get rid of grinding and make the path to Jedi quest based, when all they did was add a few Npcs in an obscurevillage where we have to go to trade xp that we GRINDED into FS xp. Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture? Is anyone else noticing a distinct pattern of events here? I know I certainly am!
Game Content without the grind:
Forgive me.. but I did not know where to post this perhaps you can help:
Content to make the game “fun”, for those not interested in grinding. While it’s always interesting to learn a new skill, by getting the xp for a new skill box, many things can become repetitive over a period of time.
This is all idea about creating fun for one who has mastered their profession and would prefer to become the ultimate embodiment of that profession.
In order to do so, one would have to create rewards specific for your profession, based upon your skillset.
Many of the items talked about in here are already based upon things created for and active within the game. I would imagine these could be implemented without a major drain on development resources. As a novice gamer myself, I do not understand the development process of items within the game, but by utilizing things which I have already seen it would seem possible to implement these changes.
This is all about becoming a master at your profess and then following some additional tiers to achieve things. “Beyond Master”.
Completion of these said tiers would created real interest in continuing to play your profession to it’s fullest extent and at the end create a situation, where a true master of ones profession makes one becomes a sought after player for group activities as you will have access to certain mobs which YOU can spawn and things which only YOU can accomplish.
Please consider my thoughts.
To begin. First you must master your profession, when complete you would now would see an NPC trainer in a NPC guild hall within most cities. He would begin the process of providing this content.
Level 1: Requirements:
Must have mastered your profession to receive access to guild hall NPC terminal.
Must pay guild fee of $100 per mission
This terminal will give out missions based on +15 above your skill level. This gives you access to higher level content. Since it’s likely you’ve not engaged many of these missions before they will seem fresh to you. (unless grouped).
You must complete a minimum of 250 missions to advance to a level 2 master. A completed mission counts toward that total, a failure (clone) will count against that total. In a sense you must complete the missions without fail or suffer a small penalty.
Level 2: Requirements
Completion of level one requirements.
Now at level two several other things begin to happen… The terminals will give you missions +30 above your skill level, but at this level there will be some “minor” custom content.
Again you need 250 missions to ascend to the next level, but, every 10th mission will be sent to you via the in game e-mail system which will create a waypoint to an already created NPC, in the game. The NPC will give you a mission. The NPC missions will create a “rare” spawn for you to engage. Again using a Master Ranger as an example, the NPC would create the general location of say perhaps a “Gronda Juggernaught, “Great Plains Stalker” or “Wild Bladeback Boar”, basically something which appears infrequently. Completion of this mission would result in the drop of a loot item specific to the profession. Example, Ranger would get a +3 camo SEA or perhaps a schematic for an enhancement to a certain type of trap, a swordsman perhaps a +1 speed SEA, a marksmans, an attachment which would give his or her weapon a small DOT effect. Anything usueful toward making the player a bit more “elite”.
Completing these 250 missions at this level would result in a level three.
A third and final tier.
At this level, you would be given access to missions +75 above your skill level, in essence this is the same as the ability to be a part of your own “solo group”.
Again, the 250 missions would roll out, where every 10th mission comes via an in game e-mail to a specific waypoint with a NPC. This NPC, will again give you missions, but this time they are 2-3 part missions
Upon completion of those missions, the NPC would give you, a “part” of a greater item, much in the manner of the Hero of Tattooine ring. The number of parts would vary for the item, but would require that at least half of the 25 NPC missions were completed successfully. These items would be of real value (such as the hero ring), or perhaps a “healing terminal” which you could place in your home which would cure your wounds without having to go to the medical center. These items would be placed on a timer, so that they could only be used so often within a certain period. But none the less it would be a great item to have.
And now for the finale….
At the completion of this third tier, you begin a 5-8 part quest (this requires profession specific content and perhaps some development resources).
Given by an NPC (who will be deemed the ultimate master of his profession), will meet you in the same manner as “The Old Man”. He will offer you these quests and an honor for your commitment to your profession.
Completion of these missions will give the player “ONE”, legendary item. This item can not be traded, and can be used only by the player. It must be “non-decayable”, but placed on a specific timer which allows for it’s use say perhaps once a week.
Upon competion of the final quest, the player will earn a new badge, one which honors a player above the mastering of his profession. As an example the Master Ranger completing all of the above, would now have the tag. “Outdoorsman”.
Once completed with all of the above items, with your new title. The mission terminals in the guild hall will now be “adjustable”, that is the player may adjust a slider, to any skill level 5-200, which he or she chooses.
There will also be a button which says the the name of the “honored” profession which have been entitled, when pressed it would bring you to a screen which would allow for 2 things to happen.
Option one would be the generation of 5 elite missions, of which you can choose one a week. Example for Ranger: Gorax, Krayt, GDK and of course when chosen they need to drop their loot to make them worthwhile hunts. (Since these mobs require a group to handle, if would make players more social, making them sought out by other players in the game to engage in these elite missions.) A second option would allow the player to reset these tiers and go back though and re-earn items. (The player does not lose his/her badge or items acquired the first time through, it simply resets the tiers).
These are all just thoughts…. But in all honesty… the enjoyment of this game for me would increase ten fold. As it gives each profession a chance to become something special within the skills made by choice.
This is all done with very little grinding… and could truly be the content of the game.
Sincerely,
Alyssia Besette
As each player advances through variouse proffessions, & gains exp in them, then drops a proffession & uses the exp for say, Jedi Exp conversion or AP's, you are sometimes left with 100's of past proffession exp from different Defunct skills with only +1 exp or so.
Browsing that list can be annoying seeing all these leftover Exp Points... Bio Crafting +2 "Dropped Bio 6 months ago", Dancing +4 "Never doing Entertainer again"...etc, etc....
Just would be nice to be able to tidy up the Skill/Proffessions window & get rid of "Old", unwanted Exp Catagories.
