Development Cycle Archive

I have a question for you.Are you guys actually planning on doing something with faction ranks or what they seem to be usless except for transfering faction.

One concept, make tons more furniture and especially plants and such because the selection for decarations right now stinks.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Thought I would post this again this week, just to let people know...

A Letter to Those Who Do Not Understand The Smugglers' Position

By Ryutek


I have seen way too many people come in lately that do not seem to understand where many of us stand, and so I wanted to put this in persepctive.



Section 1: Definition(s)
Merriam-Webster
Main Entry: smuggle
Function: verb
transitive senses

• 1 : to import or export secretly contrary to the law and especially without paying duties imposed by law
  
• 2 : to convey or introduce surreptitiously

intransitive senses

• 1 : to import or export something in violation of the customs laws

Dictionary.com
smuggle

• 1 : To import or export without paying lawful customs charges or duties.
  
• 2 : To bring in or take out illicitly or by stealth.

Currently we are the only profession that does not do what our own name states. We do not smuggle.


Section 2: Regarding Illegal Items

Quite simply, we want to provide a service to players who wish to have illegal items moved from one place to another. There are many suggestions on how to achieve this, and I am not writing this to support or condone any one idea, so I will not go into any details here. What we want to keep from happening is to have our skills wasted on an entirely self-contained "mini-game."

The one thing that is making most of us upset though, is that our impression of the player base in general is that NO ONE seems willing to accept consequences for their actions. What we have seen is that the player base wants all of the rewards, and the ability to get and do everything in the game, without having to work for it. Let me use an example:

EXAMPLE
With the "Imperial Crackdown" there was not, originally, any bonuses to Smugglers to evade these scans. The Smuggler Community lobbied for a change, and did eventually receive the ability that we should rightfully have (it is, after all, a limited form of smuggling). Now, here is the problem, Imperials get a free ride to carrying contraband (which by definition is smuggling) without having to invest any skillpoints into Smuggler. This means our skills were given to other players without requiring them to be Smugglers. To make matters worse, items in Droid Compartments are not scanned either, so now every player is essentially a Smuggler without having to spend skillpoints. See the problem?



All we want is for illegal items to be illegal, not illegal to Person Rebel and not Person Imperial. We want consequences for carrying illegal items, not an apology to Person Imperial and a measly 50 credit fine to Person Rebel (Just tossing numbers, I know it is low but not sure how low).

The players of SWG have gotten used to having sliced weapons and armor and spices as commodities, when they are, in fact, not. They are illegal items (It even states it in the descriptions of the skill tree and with the new sliced tags on items). As such there should be STIFF consequences for using these illegal items.



Section 3: Regarding Smuggler Skills

Our profession in a rare one in this game in that the end result of our actions is not dictated buy our equipment but only by our skills. A chef has not only their skill set, but their extra experimentation points, resource quality whether they're in a City with a Research Center specialization and tool quality all come into the mix in determining the quality of their work. Likewise, not only do Docs have those crafting variables when creating their "tools" but when using them they also have buff pack quality, food+cloths, droid quality, BF, etc. when determining the outcome of their buffs.

Smugglers have none of those additional factors determining the outcome of our work. It is *only* our skill level that has any manageable effect on outcome. Our tools are not high tech in game terms. Think of it as the MacGuyver school of crafting/slicing. Our skill is in taking whatever we have at hand and turning it into something - something that your average guy on the street cannot.

EXAMPLE
There has been a recent proposal about making Mag Seal containers able to be opened by anyone with a kit crafted by a Smuggler. Mag Seal Containers are locked containers that are not able to be sliced at the moment, and are on a "time lock" type of mechanism. If this was to go through then we would be, yet again, granting our skills to the player base without having them require spending skillpoints to actually, get this, gain the skill. See a problem here?

---

Ragnaat wrote:

Think about the 'ability' of one to pick a 'real life' lock with a paperclip. I could get a room of 50 people together and hand them each a paperclip and park them in front of a locked door. Just because all 50 people have the "tool" does not mean that all 50 doors will magically become unlocked. ONLY those with the SKILLS will find themselves opening the door.

---

That is it in a nutshell ladies and gentlemen. Nothing fancy, although we have many ideas that would be great if they were implemented. Take a look at the hundreds of constructive posts we have in this forum, and you will see that we are capable of coming up with a system that everyone can enjoy. It all hinges on one thing, though, and that is the fact that:

ILLEGAL ITEMS MUST BE MADE TRULY ILLEGAL AND HAVE STIFF PENALTIES FOR BEING CAUGHT WITH THEM AND WE CANNOT GIVE THE SKILLS OF A PROFESSION AWAY TO EVERYONE WITHOUT HAVING THEM INVEST SKILLPOINTS IN THAT PROFESSION

---

Worldmaker2k4 wrote:

Since this is open-concept, and there are a lot of great posts with purely random improvements, I'll forgoe the obligatory "Fix my profession!" and just rattle off what will likely be a lot of ideas:

Criminal/Third Faction

My greatest ambition in SW:G, before ever having picked it up, was to emulate the business and practices of smugglers/mercenaries like Talon Karrde, Mara Jade, and the rest of Zahn's wonderful cast. I was utterly dismayed to find that I couldn't choose a criminal faction, or even work as an announced member of a Hutt cartel.

How to implement:

Strictly speaking, it would have to be a wholesale faction, albeit with its own perks and drawbacks. I'll detail below:

1. Covert/Overt - A distinct departure from the black and white factions of Rebel and Imperial, this faction would have the ability to declare Overt and fight either Imperials or Rebels. This would add another dimension to a very static GCW, by way of turncoats, guns-for-hire that you actually had to pay well, and mercenaries willing to straddle the fence for the highest bidder. Obviously, this leaves them open to a lot of retaliation from both sides.

2. Faction Perks - Being criminals, it would make sense that they have access to a wealth of black market weaponry and armor. However, being a criminal ensures that you generally pay quite a bit more for what you're looking to buy. Have piecemeal Imperial armor, run-down support bots/walkers scavenged from junkyards, unreliable (but powerful) weapons, and more in that same vein. Dirty, hard-to-get, but it gets the job done. Sometimes. And it might even work after the first time you turn it off.

Faction Perks could be made available (and varied in price) depending on what criminal NPC factions the player has good (or poor) standing with. Perhaps being a Criminal with high Hutt standing earns you a bigger response (more damage, frequent random spawns)from other cartelsoff ofTatooine, but you have access to goods at a lower rate.

3. Criminal Record - Think being scanned for sliced items is a pain? Try being a Criminal Faction member with good standing in more than a few cartels. You aren't going to pay a fine here, folks. You're either going to gun your way out of town, or die a branded, burnt, and blasted con.

4. Thief's Honor - Inasmuch as Rebels and Imperials recieve backup when NPCs of their own faction witness a fight they're in, criminals could get support from factions that they have good standing in. Very immersive, in that you'd find players frequenting the actual towns that their cartels operate in, or trying to draw in opponents towards known spawns for that handy backup. (Not that anyone on the planet is going to get help from Meatlumps. Those poor bastards.)

5. Space Expansion - This needs consideration with a third faction. Modified ships that can't pass Imperial standards, and cost too much for Rebels, should be commonplace on a Criminal's hangar. Hotwired, juiced, and customized to be both inconspicuous and dangerous, these often burn out controlpanels as much as fire turbolasers. "Would it help if I got out and pushed?"

Just some ideas there. I REALLY wish the Devs would get this in priority. I think it's one of the biggest pieces of Star Wars errata missing. It's what we loved about Han, before he turned Rebel for his princess. It's what we pored over Zahn novels for. It's why you're going to see a hundred Jade's Fires flying around space in four or five months. Don't dismiss this, whatever you do.

---

This proposal is so great it actually warrants repetition

Take your Crit Failures and shove them somewhere painful. I--as many others before me have--just wasted 5 days of DNA sampling all over Dath on 4 crit failure assemblies. Not 5 causal played fun days wasted, but 5 horrid days of crawling, walkng, running away, etc--that's 5 un-fun days. Every Mutant Rancor DNA sample I had gained--which is all the risk we should have to pay for the reward, in fact it is too much risk for the reward--was destroyed because of your stupid conviction to stay with a game function the vast majority of us hate. This makes BE the 6th crafting class where the frustration of losing all my components is ruining any joy from the profession--great design idea guys.

It sucks, it kills the fun of the game and you Devs can stop wasting words justifying this bull**edit** feature that only you like.

Ban me if you like, cancel my accounts, whatever you want, I don't care. Crits should die, period.

Vinaddar

any ideas why acid dmg dosn't corrode armor or clothes ?

I would also like :

• To see my faction rank in the character sheet.


• That maybe faction rank would be displayed above the badge-list on the player examine-window but only viewable by people of the same faction.


• That belts would be fixed so as to not look like hullahops around my body


• To be able to wear my chitin gloves along with my composite bracers and not that when I wear one of those two it puts the other unequipped.


• To be able to put on and off the badges from when people examine me, by groups : Locations, professions, quests, etc... (at least be able to hide the location badges) : Bios are killed by those !!!


• That jewelry appear in inventory, in examine window, AND in crafting color-choosing for tailor.


• That harvesters go on animating as they were...


• To be able to price multiple items at the same price at the same time in my vendor (from the stockroom).


• More clothings in faction perks according to ranks (would cost fps, but could only be worn by the appropriate rank) : not necessarily many different clothes but some differences in colours for example...

Thanks !

And then I would also like :

• To be able to wear a bandolier AND a backpack at the same time (what's so difficult with this ???).


• That Wookiee could wear the Ubese Bandolier (it's not really armor is it ???).


• That Ranger-Camo would remove you from other player's radars... Would be fun !


• That Ranger forage would yield something really special once in a while like it is supposed to be (it is, or was, in the description).

Thanks again !

no action at keyboard for 10min [afk] , at least 4 of the same messages per minute for a minute [spamming]=system message warning

anothe minute at 4 of th same messages [afk spamming]= second warning

another 4 same messages/minute= TEF

afk spamming is gotten way out of hand, why not add a player enforced system of taking it out?

Here's a concept. How about not taking the servers down during the weekends? Is this too much to ask? I mean I know you devs do things to the beat of your own drum and us players have to guess at what the hell you are thinking but I think it's a no brainer to let us play at least anytime during the weekend.

I'm sure this is coming at the end of the weekly discussion, but it's an issue that should be brought up nonetheless.

Defense modifiers have no clear explanation of effectiveness. For example, I've heard rumors of a defense cap of 120 to ranged and melee combat. However, I have not seen any official statements in the patch notes.

Now take a template I've been tinkering with lately. It uses defenses from multiple trees to boost my character's Dizzy defense. Without food or SEAs, his Dizzy Defense is at 90. This is an effective counter to all the new Carbineer upgrades. Also very effective against melee fighters who spam dizzy attacks, then use knockdown or posture changing attacks. With SEAs, the test character can achieve 115 in Dizzy defense. Sadly, this concept only works in theory, as dizzy still lands on the test character quite easily.

Now take Poison resists. I can wear a belt with +10 to poison reisists. A robe with +10 to poison resists, and SEAs totally in +25 to poison resist. This gives a grand total of +45 to Poison resists. Sadly, poison still lands on the test character with little effort.

On another test character, I set defense to knockdown at +120 and defense to posture change to +130 through various professions. With SEAs, the total knockdown defense was +145. I lacked the posture change SEAs to further test the second part of this theory. Sadly, it was easy to knockdown and posture changethe test character.

Now, adding food into this equation. With food, I was able to withstand all of these attacks with a much higher effective rate. The only exception was poison. The Genosian Bio lab Disease & Poisons are simply too strong and totally unbalance any organized PvP in SWG. However, that's another discussion I'll save for this coming week.

And so my questions are as follows:

Is it the intent of the developers that we not "dabble" in professions to customize our fighters in the GCW?Adding further this question, is it intended that we simply pick one combat profession (ranged or melee) and a secondary profession with no relation to the first? (ie TKA/Doctor since they share no defenses and are able to work independantly of each other)

Is it inteneded that we only use food as true defense modifiers for pvp and pve encounters?

If the answer to both questions is 'no', does anyone (that has access to true test numbers) have the authority to further discuss these issues in forum?

As stronger poisons and diseases are introduced into the game, will stronger defenses to these attacks be added? To remain competitive currently, every guild needs atleast 4-5 combat medics to even compete in any form of organized fighting. And when both sides have an equally effective amount of combat medics, the best you can hope to achieve is that both sides die at or about the same time.

Will the current food system be changed so that when a player dies, they will no longer carry over the filling effects of whatever food or drink they previously used?