Development Cycle Archive

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Dubolom wrote:

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Sabbthiel wrote:

I am really happy to hear that high lvl NPCs will be require hunting parties again... but um.. can i expect to be "blasted" of my bike by maulers on Naboo?

I, and my poor pet, were cut to ribbons upon leaving my home by master mauler, who was skirting our city.

I mean, Night sisters and what not nice... but should we all now travel buffed and in composite?

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watch your radar, and use your head. like we all did before vehicles came along, remember?

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I do watch my radar. The targets appear just as I am passing them and turn red moments later just in time to shoot me in the back. Fix the graphics radar so it actually shows me what is comming and I will be better able to avoid the conflict.

-Indene-

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JustG wrote:

The AI will not have a weapon switch delay. They do not use the same combat queue as Player Characters do. We could eventually code this in, but it will take approximately a week of dev/ QA time, and I am certain more than a few of you would find a way to, er, take advantage of this situation, so we would have to spend more time balancing it against exploits etc.

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NPC are to easy as it is already, and once players find the reason why NPC change weapons they will force them to do that non stop to kill them without having them more then 1 or 2 shots fired.

Like the AItrickfor creatures when 2 players are bothatsame range from the creature, the creature then agros who does the most dmg so player 1 and 2 switch specials in turns so the creature keeps changing agro and none of the players get hit in the end.

Player 1<------------50m------------Creature------------50m------------>Player 2

Now player 1 uses specials.

Player 1<------25m------Creature------------------75m------------------>Player 2

Now player 1 stops using specials and player 2 takes over

Player 1<------------75m------------Creature------------25m------------>Player 2

The Creature never comes closer then 25m of the player, it wont be hard to find asimulair trick for smart players on NPC to keep then switching weapons. This has been fix already so dont bother trying it.

I would rather see the devs focus their time to fix as much of the combat flaws in the game that makes pvp suck.

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JustG wrote:

Please post your feedback on:

• 
  
  Increased Loot Kit Drop Rates

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- Jedi TEFs....No clue since I am not a Jedi and I do not play a Bounty Hunter. However I have noticed an increased appearance of Jedi. I really hope they get visibility "points" and placed on the Bounty Hunter terminals everytime somebody sees them with their lightsabers out. I have seen a total of about a dozen Jedi on my server all with sabers out and running around town. That, to me, should place them on the BH terminals, particularly when I'm a different GCW side than the Jedi in question. So I hope the visibility factor is working correctly.

- Squill Cave....I haven't been there since the patch.

- Mark of Courage....I haven't started on the "Marks" quest series yet.

- NPCs equipping/weapon changing.....I have noticed this, and found it more challenging. I do not fight the larger npc's like Nightsisters, but I have noticed this on maulers and smaller humanoid npcs.

- NPCs using special abilities....I have noticed this too, my pets and I were hit with bleed several times while at the Mauler compound on Naboo. I had to change my old fighting strategies but I found that I could still kill the Mauler Lord and his minions. The loot from these special POI places needs to be checked. After I spent nearly 10 minutes fighting the Mauler Lord he dropped a used jacket and a few credits. The container inside the house was locked and at the pile of debris I found some regular stone knives and other "junk" weapons.

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Groovymarlin wrote:

Regarding the wookiee armor crash...not sure if this is related, but every time I see a wook in game wearing the hunting armor, they look like this.

My video card is an Nvidia GeForce4 4200 Go with 64mb of video RAM, my system has a gig of RAM and a Penium 4 2.4 GHz. I don't have any other video problems running SWG, even with graphics set pretty high.

Also I have the latest DirectX, drivers, etc., etc.

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I know that's an error, but it's kind of a cool effect, the total blackout. Sort of mysterious.

"dont get me wrong - i love the changes - but if you give one set of rules for combat to one side - and the other is not restricted - that is unbalanced."

Sorry, but had to comment on this... my apologies if it's addressed later in the thread and I missed it.

Ok, so they give the ai a weapon delay, but to make it even, all players have to follow a precoded set of actions and responses? Free thought and human reaction are our strong points. There has never been an in game AI players have not beaten, one way or another. Deal with it by using your free thought to come up with an alternative solution, personally, any improvment in NPC ai I see as a good thing.

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JustG wrote:

Folks,

Thanks so much for the feedback, please keep it coming.

Thunderheart is in San Diego doing some transitional stuff as he takes on the role of Community Manager, so I am filling in for him today.

The AI will not have a weapon switch delay. They do not use the same combat queue as Player Characters do. We could eventually code this in, but it will take approximately a week of dev/ QA time, and I am certain more than a few of you would find a way to, er, take advantage of this situation, so we would have to spend more time balancing it against exploits etc.

This may be something that we revisit in the future, but we would rather spend whatever spare dev time we have now in getting powerful quick fixes out to you before JTL ships. Case in point, this is our second publish this week, and we will have inoculations and area cures on Test Center by tomorrow.

No other loot drop rates have been touched outside of the Loot Kits.

We are furiously trying to track down the Wookiee Armor crash, and have been working in close concert with some of you (THANKS) to nail it down. We are making traction, but have not solved it yet.

Again, we are as concerned over the CB delay as you are. Over the next few weeks, we are going to be trying very hard to get as many short-term fixes/ augmentations in as possible. We are bringing your correspondents down to Austin for a Summit Meeting next month to discuss the broader picture in full detail.

Thanks for the feedback and your patience,

- g

Message Edited by JustG on 07-29-2004 06:26 PM

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The changes with the combat medics are a step in the right direction. I got to hand it to you guys, I was skeptical that we'd see this type of thing before JTL. I'm glad you proved me wrong.

Overall a very good change in my opinion, if tweaked it could be very good for the game.

I'm part of the silent majority that normally doesn't say much about what changes, but in response to your request for our thoughts on this change, I'd like to take the time to explain my opinion & I'd appreciate if you take the time to read this long post, with all hundreds of other posts flying in quickly.

1 - Limit NPCs to specific weapons & classes that match those weapons. Start with the low mobs & give em a low end prof & weapon & balance as you go up, adding a different weapon type and/or prof as you want to up the difficulty a notch. End result should be that high end mobs have access to elite professions, with a weapon selection to match, while lower mobs are more limited in weapon & special selection.

2 - Make sure NPCs can only use specials for the weapon they have equipped.

3 - Limit stun damage weapons to high end mobs. Newbies can't afford comp let alone nice comp with good stun resists.

4 - Don't give every special in a profession to every mob. Make it so the Nightsister you're fighting, uses different specials on you, than that Stormtrooper, you're fighting on the Vette, even though they might have the same skills & weapon (bad example weapon wise, I realize). Possibly done easily, by selecting 3 specials from each prof that the NPC would have available. (Might not be easily done though depending on coding.)

5 - Make radar update farther out. I'm perfectly fine for watching my radar again & going around mobs. The problem is that we're moving a lot faster these days in our vehicles then we were back in the day running around & on mounts. That means that we're often right on top of, or past the mob before it ever shows up on radar.

6 - Droids shouldn't use equipped weapons. I wouldn't be opposed to droids coming in different damage types, but they shouldn't be using player weapons & specials. Could be made into a DE buff as well.
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I think this has the makings of a very good change for SWG, but I believe if the previously mentioned items aren't revisited, then it hurts the game in other areas.

Ignore the people complaining loudly about not being able to solo 5-20 of the toughest mob around, most of us know we're not supposed to be able to do that, & know that when going for the toughest mobs around, you need high quality armor/weapons/the right number of people & profs.

BUT

There are people who are content to not be the best at everything, & like soloing challenging non-top end fights. These people will be hurt far more dramaticaly than the top end player fighting high end mobs. (reference posts through this thread about, non-buffed or non armored players having trouble, not against jantas or nightsisters, but low end mobs)
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I myself like fighting challenging fights, using the best equipment i'm able to aquire, with groups of friends also well equipped/skilled & think this could be very good for game as it will bring back some challenge, but this is too much of a blanket change not taking into account the non end-game.

I know what i'm asking for will take lots of people time, but I think it's required for this to work right. I would, in your shoes, either:

a)Take a planet a day or two, & go through the mobs types (not just major type [ie: janta], also minor type [ie: janta shaman vs janta herbalist], taking into account the above points. Roll out the first planet, & watch what happens for a day or two. If it's about right move on to the next & rinse repeat.

b)Roll back the mini-patch & either, do a planet at a time then roll it all out, or take a planet at a time & roll them out seperately.
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Once again, I'm not complaining, this is good stuff, but needs to be tweaked a bit!