CUEmu - Thread Posts

R2DADROID

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:39 am

Thunderheart wrote:

Last Week'sThread:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=in_live&message.id=1362

Welcome to the Weekly Discussion Thread.

I'll come back and answer some questions from last week's thread.

I hope everyone had a great weekend

I spent most of my weekend thinking about how bad removing permadeath will be for the game.

I hear the voices of a million Jedi players screaming out in apathy (because they realize there is nothing special about them, since everyone else will be a Jedi, too).

R2

"Oh JarJar, everyone hates you but me" - Comicbook Guy

Shielle

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:44 am

#15

antares_Kauri wrote:
The main discussion today will center around the upcoming Crackdown on Imperials and the Jedi changes.

antares
master pikeman

lol

Kade_Deveron

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:44 am

#16

OK, my real concern for this week? The Imperial Crackdown. The reports I am reading indicate that this "crackdown" will destroy imperial players.

1. Random list of illegal items
2. Loss of faction ranks (busted to private) plus FP dropped to 200!

Rebels, on the other hand, get tef'd and attacked.

This hardly seems balanced.

First, players should be able to check and see what items are considered contraband. Second the penalties for imperials need to be seriously rebalanced.

-----------------------------
Khade Deveron

Riptide0

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:46 am

#17

Dear Thunderheart,

Jedi do not belong in this game. PERIOD.

At the heart of the problem is this: Jedi are special because they are rare. Thus, there is no way to balance the issue in an MMORPG. You either tell 99% of your customers that they aren't allowed to participate in the most uber content in the game (through whatever mechanism you use to keep the Jedi population limited, be it hardcaps, permadeaths, etc) or you take the rarity out of Jedi by making them common, and thus destroy the myth and illusion behind one of your fictions most powerful figures.

Yet the problem extends beyond this. Why commit resources to developing the vast number of quests, skills, etc. that including Jedi requires if it is only to be used fora very minute percentage of your customers. Yet if the opposite is true, and Jedi become common, you will only server to drive the non-Jedi from the game, which will only heighten the sense among the Jedi that they are not rare or special in any way, shape, or form. Then they too will leave.

Its a short term solution to player retention with very real long term consequences and repercussions on the player community. It has thepotentiall torip the heart right out of this game, and destroy the very communities that have worked so very hard to exist.

If they have the old forums archived from3.5 years ago when Jedi were initially announced, please go read the debates that took place then and refresh the rest of the development teams memories. Everything that has happened and appears to be happening was discussed in great detail then. After the arguments were put forth and the repercussionsand effect on the players and community examined, the devs made many promises that they now appear to be breaking.

Its not too late.

Sincerly,

Riptide

Riptide

Elder Commando
Elder Smuggler
Elder TKA
Elder Swordsman

DaQuilla

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:49 am

#18

Please explain the new upcoming /contraband much more in detail ...

Make everybody know that with the patch coming any neutral player can apparently lose all their very expensive armor or/and weapon if sliced ... and as it seems even large quantities of resources might be simply taken away from crafters if detected by stormtroopers in certain cities (e.g. because the crafter wants to sell the resources on the new 6k max bazaar) ...

Please make known that imperials loose 500 faction points when detected with sliced armor and weapons (that are essential to PvP) and apparenty loose those items as well except if they apparantly "register" them (if not detected befor, thus loosing them) and that Rebels apparantly simply get a TEF (if not overt already) and apparenty keep the item.

At least that's what I'm reading in many threads in Test Center right now ... don't really want to test "loosing" myself.

Kheraba City - . - . - . - . - M a y o r - . - . - . - . - . - . - Etraes'Khar
A place to call your home - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - . - Many are called, few are chosen
- Where they play that Jizzz - The Green Fizz - Player Cantina Snacks&Drinks
- Tatooine - -3230 -6150 - Gorath Galaxy

Krayvex

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:51 am

#19

You might want to elaborate a bit on the new jedi system and the thoughts behind it. I'd have to have to write another tale from "the top of SWG tower" to explain it to everyone.

Slaag Lazerbait

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. - Hermann Goering

n00berX2

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:51 am

#20

Hey TH

What's with the insane defensive stacking on melee characters? you cant touch them when they are in armor

AKA Pistoleer/Fencer Combo +210 dodge

I dont think defences are suppose to stack like that?

lan?

WookieOgre

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:52 am

#21

Its been said multiple times already. Please elaborate on "compensation" for holo grinders past the "4th holo".

Thunderheart

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:52 am

#22

Braglor wrote:
...did you all answer the ten pikeMan wuestions?

Heh. As soon as I can. Ill be doing the "10 questions" for a lot of professions in order. Pikeman are in the first batch though

EvilDrider wrote:

Morning TH...

I think one of the major points to bring up is.. Contraband!

As a jedi andwith another characterwho uses lots of sliced armor and spices, is there any way we can get some clarification on what is or is not contraband.

I assume that Spices and all sliced items are illegal.. as they should be. However what else is?

Im not telling - - thats part of the fun of the game.

Aakhperkare wrote:
Hey TH. Just something that's been frustrating me. I have been trying for over a month trying to get a Bull Rancor (baby). Now at 134 lairs, 50 of those being wild lairs the rest mission lairs I am still empty handed. Is this what was intended? I mean, just how long am I going to have to keep trying. Far as I know, there have only been about 4-5 confirmed Bull Rancor (babies). I don't mind rare, but this is just insane!...

Well, in "fantasy terms" of the game, you're chasin a red dragon...yes its supposed to be that rare.

Zarathustra wrote:

TH,

In Q's post on the Friday Feature, he said there are going to be more short term changes coming for the jedi, any possibility of dropping a few hints on what those might be? There are many issues that are bothering the jedi community, for example, lightsaber crafting has become insane with the availability of pearls and crystals, and the amounts theyare selling for. Also how the Imperial Crackdown might affect the jedi, both light and dark.

I dont know what we are going to release yet (thats not up to me...), but the new design document for Jedi is very satisfying to me as a fan. I can't wait

Aakhperkare wrote:

Yes, I am currently having my weekend and it is good...thanks...

W00T!

I crafted all weekend. Part of the big correspondent issues that are on all the lists are critical fails. We started an experiment this weekend where we attached scripts to all the correspondents and we're crafting, crafting, crafting so we can find out the percentage of critical fails and other sorts of internal diagnostics.

I discovered I love to craft

Jowekie wrote:

Well incase you haven't stopped by over the weekend TH, some info onthe new FSCS systemwould be helpful. Since the Friday feature madness has taken over and rumors are getting crazy.

Contraband, on Test, could use a little definition. Is wheat really on the list? Is it one random item from your inventory?

I was in game all weekend working on the crafting experiment....

I'll put up a bunch of test threads today. Contraband is not wheat. Its got nothing to do with wheat....

Its not one random item. Its a "dice roll". The system rolls to see who is scanned and then when you get scanned, it counts the number of contraband items you have and then has a "percent chance" to catch you.

Welborne wrote:
Ahoy, TH...

I'm curious about vendor and bazaar stability. I'm not sure if it's rampant on every server, but I know I've lost quite a bit of money due to purchases made during high lag/low ping play sessions on Eclipse (you purchase an item, the system freezes in the "Retrieval" stage, and you lose out on receiving the item but still lose credits).

Certain planets and locations have simply become 'unplayable' (for lack of a better term) on Eclipse.

Thanks!

Sorry to hear that. Please ping a CSR and give them the details. If your items dont come back in 24 hours, they can probably help you out.

One thing - - if you can give the CSR the Planet and location (x,y), its really helpful. Different areas are different servers and it helps us pinpoint where the porblem is.

From a high level point of view, the commodity market is a very important item to everyone inside and out and I hope to have some very good news for you soon...

Khragon wrote:

A) Please be more descriptive in regards to what or how we will be compensated for our Jedi Holocron grinding and the new Quest system. Will we be compensated for only completing our 4 holo prof's or for all prof's up to that point?

Sorry, no can do. I can't answer Jedi questions. I do read the posts and the Correspondent feedback though and pass the info along.

B) What is up with the Imperial crackdown on test? People are upset thats its extremely weak(hardly a crackdown), and in fact, with teh contraband scanning, its more of a crackdown on Imperials.

We're tweaking it out. Thats an old comment actually - - most people yesterday we're getting harassed.

C) We should discuss more the punishments for being found with contraband on both rebel and imperial sides

We're all looking at that info now. It will be more than it is, but less than what some harsh players want. Its tough to find a balance between "fun imperial oppression" and "not fun gameplay" - - its a fine line for sure.

D) Release date of the Jan Publish?

Soon. We're taking time to tweak it out so that the crackdown meets peoples expectations.

Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl
Community Relations Manager

antares_Kauri

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:55 am

#23

Why are the Imperial crackdown contraband penalties much stiffer for the Imperials than Rebel?

antares
master pikeman

|Pikeman non-stop since July, 2003|
|combatUpgrade::alpha :: JTL::beta :: RotW::beta :: ToOW::beta|
SOE Producer Dallas Dickinson says:
"I mean, what is a pikeman and why is it something in the game?"

BlueOx

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:56 am

#24

Fishing is still confirmed to be completely inoperative on Test Center, Gorath and Eclipse, and has been in this state for several weeks. For some strange reason, it still works just fine on all the other servers who have reported in to this thread on the Scout forum: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=scout&message.id=13458

TH, I know this has been passed on to you through the correspondent forum, but we need some feedback on what is happening with it. Fish are essential for many bio-engineer schematics, and fishing is one of the only two ways to get Wilderness XP. After three weeks, this is starting to take its toll on the two live servers that are affected, and it completely prevents the Test Center folks from testing the changes made to fish-catch rates in the new publish.

Girnan Yi'tey (Gorath)
Master Tailor ~ Master Architect ~ Master Artisan ~ Pesky Old Lady

TheKos

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:56 am

#25

Some kind of input on the BH's would be nice. Like will we ever get our droids fixed? With no longer going to need camps to call pets and vechicles, why is scout one of our pre-req's. We have to use more skill points than any other class yet there is nothing in the scout tree that are actually used to help us with tracking down bounties and or killing them.

A visit to the BH forum, explaining why you still consider us the most powerfull class in swg would be nice too. And how are we suppose to keep the jedi population in control when we cant find any of them except for dumb luck and thier sheer stupidity. The chances of killing a jedi enough times in one week to get them to lose a single skill is not realistic. Can you please explain this a bit more?

Miindy Mighty - Novice People Hunter and proud 1337 dweeb of Tarquinas

joey1342

Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:58 am

#26

TH,

you have to serious sit and think about the jedi system...i mean hologrinding isnt fun but it makes jedi a real object to be earned...i honestly love this game, but see a bad thing aproaching. This is an era of rare rare RARE occurences of jedi...my server already has over 20 which is more than enough. If they are made more rare it will ruin the game all together. I do not want jedi to be common. This new system has to be as hard or harder than the one now. And yes...hologrinders should eb compensated but not have their slot handed to them. This is all coming from someone who has been hologrinding and wants jedi alot. But i want to earn it and not be a common sight. Keep it hard...dont listen to whiners...make it very very difficult...this is an era of few jedi...dont let whiners ruin the feel of this era for everyone...it should be hard to get jedi...i mean c'mon.

As far as taking out perma death...i dont like it at all...1 box is not enough. If your going to take it out my suggestion is this. MAke them have to reacha novice to save themselves...if someone is a padawon 4/2/4/2 and they get killed they should be padawon 0/0/0/0 now...if they are knight 2/3/1/4 and die...they should go to 0/0/0/0 that makes more sense to me. Its a middle ground and makes it so if you achieved jedi knight you dont go all the way back to padawon after dying...please consider this option...1 box is gonna make jedi not care about dying and go out anf gight all the time...and that is not logical for this era. Please re-think and take more time to do these changes...dont go so drastic and make people who love the idea of the era and the star wars spirit lose interest because of those who whine for jedi and when they get it will only move to whining for something else to cater for their needs.

thank you for your time to read this

Development Cycle Archive

Thread: Weekly Rountdable Discussion (Week Ending 2-1-04)