Development Cycle Archive
Thread: In-Concept Open Discussion (5-31-04)
Blackjack_Nova
Mon May 24, 2004 3:44 pm
#14
War Zones-
This is an area of the GCW where only standard issue equipment is usable. The idea is to have a place
This is an area of the GCW where only standard issue equipment is usable. The idea is to have a place
where casual gamers can go and fight on an even playing field. Rock. Paper, Sissors. Currently, there is
no way that someone who play even 10 hours a week can compete with the 40+ hour players.
no way that someone who play even 10 hours a week can compete with the 40+ hour players.
You can earn a "War Zone" badge by going to a War Zone and fighting in one of the epic battles. You are not
able to leave the zone until your tour of duty is up. You guys get the idea...
able to leave the zone until your tour of duty is up. You guys get the idea...
kito56
Mon May 24, 2004 3:50 pm
#15
Solve all continuity problems by advancing the timeline forward several years. You've got a great chance with the SE, don't blow it!
NsaN
Mon May 24, 2004 4:02 pm
#16
One area that I think has been put to the way side a bit is what goes into a player house. We've been given some very neat stuff in the way of loot items and limited schematics (decorative Shishi, Ornamental Rugs, Player Crafted Paintings) I think there are some things that can be done to the exsisting furniture to make things more interesting.
First: Color of crafted furniture. We can change the color of our armor, our droids, our bikes and our avatars. But to this day, if you want a little round sofa chair it will be light purple. How about making the color selectable by crafter for these items? This would add a lot more character to player housing.
Second: "Show Only Furniture".. We can sit in the couches and chairs.. we can set stuff on a table.. so far though, the best use I've found for any of the Armoir type items is to put it on top of the guild management terminal of the PA Hall I use for a house.. Back in the day we used to be able to use unlocked containers to store stuff in. Now everyone has backpacks lining a wall in their house to sort out and store their stuff. I'm all for store things reasonably, containers of resources I usually stack up or sort and leave in the open, But I would love to be able to shove all the clothes etc etc into an armoire/chest.
Third: Storing stuff in house. The 75 items per lot is not a bad way to go, if it was 75 items per lot in the houses.. A tatooine guild hall is 7 lots, that should be 525 Items if the cap wasn't 250. The Tat Hall has about 10 good sized rooms to decorate and utilize, with a 250 item count though, thats only 25 items per room. I'd like to be able to make more than just the main room look cool. I'd like to be able to show off trophys collected and such. Perhaps if the 75/lot ratio is kept but make the storage in houses experimental so that some smalls may only hold 104 items because the architect didn't do to great of a job, but a master archy with the right supplies could make a 675 Item Generic Guild Hall. I know that item limitations are probably mainly in place to help manage the amount of junk people hang on to in game. Yet, I don't see that limiting houses and making me use up 16 lots for housing and storage makes things any easier on the server. I've quiet a few friends that don't play much on the same server as me that will hold ownership of a house so I can use it. Would be easier though if I didn't need extra small houses to hold supplies in.
Fourth: Normalization of Sizes. Most of the stuff you typically see laying about a house is sized correctly. Like the furniture, weapons, armor etc etc. Recently I tried out Bio Engineer. After getting into it a bit, I thought it'd be neat to line up the DNA samples in the house, so that I could select the best sample for what ever aspect of whichever creature I was going to craft. When I dropped a Sample and a Genetic Template in house though they didn't look like a hand held object with a vial attached or a data disc looking item.. Instead they looked like 500 pound pieces of machinery. I also know that the Personal Shield Generator parts are larger than the archy's generator turbines.. yet, they are supposed to be worn on the body... (another 500 pound looking piece of machine..) If the sizing of these items were normalized they'd make a crafters den look much more realistic, kind of add to the feel of the place.
Fifth: Housing. Ok, the previous four items I think would be fairly easy compared to my fifth item, and I am sure there are some major issues with trying to accomplish my #5 issue, but i thought I'd still bring it up. Player housing though we have a good selection is still a bit drab. It can be hard to point out yer small Tat style house in a sea of identical houses. A couple things that I think would spice this up a bit is Color; Windows; Custom Floor Plan. Color should be fairly easy to do, perhaps allow the architect a certain pallete depending on the style of structure. (Like only earth tones for the Tat style). There is a window in the large tatooine style house, if that could be utilized on exterior walls that would be very cool indeed. I'm sure there are issues with this as well trying to load the contents of the house as well as still keeping track of whats going on outside. Something to think about though. The Custom Floor Plans.. If anyone has ever just walked around the misc buildings of the non player citys in tat they've probably seen some neat houses not available to anyone else. Like the cantina type building in Anchor Head. Many of the hosues through out the city's though have wha appear to be regular tat houses on the outside, but inside they have a completely different floor plan, I've even seen one that size with an elevator to a basement. Very cool stuff. I think it would be great if Architects had the capability to either make more unique style houses or alter the floor plans of houses. Perhaps they could select where the interior walls are placed, add an elevator, an internal door, roof access etc etc. In this manner they may start with only so many points and a generic house template, perhaps each addition to the basic house would take away from the alteration points that can be used (something like that... I for one don't want to see a bunch of house-mazes everywhere). This I think would allow the player architects to balance a house as the buyer would like. (balance lots/storage/lay out)
One last thing, something I forgot earlier but still on subject of player housing. We have the ability to allow others access to our houses through the Admin list.. A lot of times though it would be convenient to allow access to certain people in certain areas or allow admin access to anyone in certain areas even. Perhaps some kind of locking mechanics could be added to internal doors similar to external. So that each area of a house can have an independant admin/entry list.
Ok, so thats everything I think as far as player housing goes.I hope some of it can be implemented, I'm sure much of it would be to big of a project given everything else the dev's are working on. (Can't wait for space btw!)
Thanks for reading,
Nilith of Ahazi
Crimsonsplat
Mon May 24, 2004 4:45 pm
#17
Working with the last poster's ideas, I'd like to throw out a few of my own as well.
First, Nilith's ideas about custom houses would be great, but I know what the problem is there: geometry and textures. Creating the interior of a new structure properly so that the graphics engine will render it at any possible angle without having seziures is a non-trivial exercise, even assuming you have developed the dev tools to create the designs. You might be able to copy some of the custom NPC structure floorplans, provided that didn't run into some kind of load issues, but I think most should remain NPC only to add to their uniqueness. However, it might well be possible to customize the textures. (I'm speaking of the behind-the-scenes graphics here.) Do the exteriors (or interiors) use only ONE texture? Or do they use multiple layered textures, and if so, would it be possible to slighlty vary the colors of one or more? Depending on whether the house is all one big texture or "strips and sections" of multiple layered sections adjacent to each other, it might be possible to vary several different parts. Though the more parts you can vary, the smaller the range of variations have to be... I don't want to approach a player city and have my video card take one look at the riot of color, and say, "You're kidding, right? Call me on Tuesday. Bye."
Second: we can rotate items in only ONE dimension. Add '/pitch up/down x' and '/yaw up/down x' commands for full 360 degree rotational ability, along with /move up/down affecting backpacks. Add /resetPitch and /resetYaw for when we barf it up completely. I'd like to take desk lights and "attach" them to the celing or wall. Or "lean" something up against a wall, as if I'd just tossed it there. The game has to be able to render these objects from any point of view now anyway; I hope checking two more possible orientations wouldn't be too great a burden. It could be, though, I admit.
Third: change the way lots are apportioned to players. (Gee, I bet this one has been suggested before, so apologies if I'm reinventing the wheel.) The current "flat rate" stinks; it penalizes some classes over others and makes it too easy for "lot borrowing" and "cross server lot trades" to take place. Revise the system as follows: (Note: these are suggested numbers, but I'm not set on them; I may have overlooked something. It's the concept I am pushing, not the exact # of lots.)
All players: 0 lots when the character is started.
Add +1 lots for reaching level 4 in any tree (once only, not per tree).
Add +2 lots for mastering any basic profession (per profession)
Add +2 lots for mastering any elite profession.
Special class Awards (all cumulative):
Novice Artesian: +2 lots for level 4 in survey
Master Entertainer +5 lots (must be cantina)
Master Artesian +5 lots (harvesters, houses or merchant tents)
Master Architect +4 lots (factories, houses or harvesters only)
First, Nilith's ideas about custom houses would be great, but I know what the problem is there: geometry and textures. Creating the interior of a new structure properly so that the graphics engine will render it at any possible angle without having seziures is a non-trivial exercise, even assuming you have developed the dev tools to create the designs. You might be able to copy some of the custom NPC structure floorplans, provided that didn't run into some kind of load issues, but I think most should remain NPC only to add to their uniqueness. However, it might well be possible to customize the textures. (I'm speaking of the behind-the-scenes graphics here.) Do the exteriors (or interiors) use only ONE texture? Or do they use multiple layered textures, and if so, would it be possible to slighlty vary the colors of one or more? Depending on whether the house is all one big texture or "strips and sections" of multiple layered sections adjacent to each other, it might be possible to vary several different parts. Though the more parts you can vary, the smaller the range of variations have to be... I don't want to approach a player city and have my video card take one look at the riot of color, and say, "You're kidding, right? Call me on Tuesday. Bye."
Second: we can rotate items in only ONE dimension. Add '/pitch up/down x' and '/yaw up/down x' commands for full 360 degree rotational ability, along with /move up/down affecting backpacks. Add /resetPitch and /resetYaw for when we barf it up completely. I'd like to take desk lights and "attach" them to the celing or wall. Or "lean" something up against a wall, as if I'd just tossed it there. The game has to be able to render these objects from any point of view now anyway; I hope checking two more possible orientations wouldn't be too great a burden. It could be, though, I admit.
Third: change the way lots are apportioned to players. (Gee, I bet this one has been suggested before, so apologies if I'm reinventing the wheel.) The current "flat rate" stinks; it penalizes some classes over others and makes it too easy for "lot borrowing" and "cross server lot trades" to take place. Revise the system as follows: (Note: these are suggested numbers, but I'm not set on them; I may have overlooked something. It's the concept I am pushing, not the exact # of lots.)
All players: 0 lots when the character is started.
Add +1 lots for reaching level 4 in any tree (once only, not per tree).
Add +2 lots for mastering any basic profession (per profession)
Add +2 lots for mastering any elite profession.
Special class Awards (all cumulative):
Novice Artesian: +2 lots for level 4 in survey
Master Entertainer +5 lots (must be cantina)
Master Artesian +5 lots (harvesters, houses or merchant tents)
Master Architect +4 lots (factories, houses or harvesters only)
AvamoorSkyblade
Mon May 24, 2004 4:48 pm
#18
The main thing i would like to see is Multi-Person ground vehicles, as well asa Z-Axis down on the ground! you can be "floating" in your speeder like 100ft above a wall, but not be able to fly over it! Also vehicles with weaponry, such as tanks and armed speeders, any combat on vehicles really... They had stormtroopers chasing Leia on speeders in ROTJ while firing blasters... Another must have is more detail quests! Npc quest givers right now arejust fancy mission terminals, the quests need to be more fleshed out, with plot twists and multiple paths to the final goal. as well as faction dependancy and alteration depending on who you are and who you do these quests for. It would be cool to see those events that randomly occur, (Twi-Lek slave running up asking for help...) those could also lead off onto a string of questsdepending onhow you handled the situation. ie. if you help the slavers they could ask you to help them with their slave ring, or if you help the slave she could ask you to help free the rest of her enslaved friends. basically... i just want more fleshed out content among the content that is already there.
Avamoor Skyblade
Sniper/Creature Handler Extraordinaire!
mrrpmnick
Mon May 24, 2004 4:51 pm
#19
Heres an idea for all those +1 skill tapes and attatchments, as well as holocrons:
You take no more than 4 skill tapes, or attatchments, place them in the holocron, and flip a switch. Out comes a new skill tape!
In other words, four +1 skill tapes, can make one +4 tape. Pretty simple concept. There is a cap of 125 on the abilities, so it would put all those tapes to good use.
Nick
MrGibblesworth
Mon May 24, 2004 4:58 pm
#20
Do something about the spammers. PLEASE!!! On Coronet and Theed my system drops to its knees and cries like a baby as soon as I reach town.
Something like if the same text has to be displayed over and over, induce a time limit of 3 minutes per same message. I see some people spewing the same 5 lines of text every 10 seconds and it gets very VERY hard to read things.
Someone in the Ahazi forum suggested advertisement terminals where if you are within 5 meters of one, you can see text displayed above it or hear some type of jingle, like a commercial playing to attract attention. Something, ANYTHING to reduce the amount of unneeded spam on the servers would be greatly appreciated for my gaming experience.
AFHyper
Mon May 24, 2004 5:09 pm
#21
Here is my idea to keep people from traveling all over creation and find nothing but empty vendors.
For vendors that have no items in them for sale: mark them with a cresent moon on the global
For vendors that have items for sale: mark the with a sun on the global
This is just implementing the same system that we have in place for cantinas and medical centers. Just taking it one step forward. Should be relatively easy to implement and would not cause any hardship for merchants having to keep resetting global advert on each of there vendors.
Also for vendors, I would like to see admin rights given to people (just like houses, miners, and factories) so that they can post (and repost) items to one vendor.
Just my ideas, hope to see it in game soon 
Hyper
oaki
Mon May 24, 2004 6:02 pm
#23
Housing Storage:
Allow Architects the ability to increase the number of storage compartments in a house which would allow the owner to store more items in a house. Each house would have a maximum number of storage compartments by default. The more you add the more lots it uses out of your available lots. Like other professions, give the quality of crafting a higher meaning for architects.
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.
thank you for your time
oaki maivia
Gorath
Naquiel
Mon May 24, 2004 6:41 pm
#25
Well here is a list of things i would like to see, but you will have to settle for one at the moment. I would like to see a scout or ranger get the ability to make a camp that could be used as a out in the field launching pad for the new space expantion. Lets face it, most of the cool adventures in the game had ships mostly land and take off from out in the field. Plus it might be the love that scouts/rangers are looking for. I dont know how landing at a camp will work but taking off from one will be ok. But then again, scouts/rangers can be left out again if you gave player cities starports of there own.
Guuseman
Mon May 24, 2004 6:43 pm
#26
I got a short list of ideas here:
Professions:
1. Miner: There could be a miner profession that yields the player with a greater success rate and sample sive when collecting resources. And maybe a cheaper maintenance on extractors to make it easier on them, mostly because resource collection doesn't make very much money after maintenance and power, unless it is really high quality stuff.
Skills system:
I was thinking about the 250 skill points and the fact it pretty much limits you to either being good at crafting, or good at fighting. You don't see any master commando/bounty hunter that is really any good at architect/droid engineer. I was thinking that maybe we get eliminate the 250 skill points, but replace it with a different system. My idea is to have the first profession they take have a base amount of xp needed for each skill. then the second novice taken on requires double the normal xp, then if another is taken on it is double the second's xp, and so forth. this would allow someone to master say marksman fairly easily, then take on medic a little bit harder, then maybe artisan alot harder, and if they took another like entertainer it would take them forever to get anywhere in it, but still allow them to do it if they really want to. With the number of professions we currently have it would take 2-3 solid years to master them all, and even then there'l be more out by then. Just my opinion, I'm open to criticism to make my idea more sound.
City stuff:
1.Militia: Maybe a ranking system in the city militia, like chief, lieutenant, sargeant. Something like that to signify seniority or status. As well as a rank system a mayor should be able to hire npc militia to patrol the city and attack people who have been banned by player militia. That way if only one militia member is online and they have to ban more than one person they won't be overwhelmed by their numbers and will have backup to assist them. There could also be the option to recruit from a range of combat specialized npc militia that cost more for better combat ratings and allow for teams of npc's to be built based on their specialties with different weapons. Making a more versatile npc militia force.
2.Streetlamps: They need to be alot brighter, I've got 2 up at the entrance to the cantina in my city on talus, and you can't see anything but the stairs with the amount of light they give off.
3.Transit: I thought maybe some sort of transit system that 2 mayors can set up between each other's city. Not shuttles but something ground based. Each city could be obligated to cover half of the maintenance. Could be a cheaper form of transportation, but designed kinda like the mounts and you just get a ticket, enter the vehicle and enjoy the ride.
4.Defences: I was thinking about maybe having walls or fences for architects to build and mayors to place. This could be used to force missions outside the city so we don't end up with npc camps spawned right outside citizen's houses. It's pretty annoying to exit your house and be swarmed with vynock. As well as walls we could have an option for a militia cheif to place defence turrets or covert scanners(for gcw cities) to keep out unwanted guests, as well as an option to deny civic services to an entire faction and declare the city as a certain side. This could make the city into more of an actual base and could be made to have drawbacks, such as destructable civic structures, or even something like how a faction base is destroyed set up in the city hall. This would definately add a spin to the gcw.
Pets:
I think that a person's droid limit should be dictated by control nodes that they can place in their house or possibly a civic structure for city defense. And maybe have it be 3 droids per node, allowing for someone to raise an army of droids, because it seems kinda rediculous to only have 1 droid at a time, especially after episode 1. And faction pets have that nasty problem of only being allowd a max of 3. A rebel/imperial general definately would command more than 3 troops.
Connectivity:
I understand that the developers have been working very hard and doing their best, but It seems a bit excessive to bring the servers down every single day for an hour or so. If maybe that could be changed to a few hours once a week I'm sure evyone would be considerably happier about the connectivity they would be getting.
Timeline:
Alot of people have been complaining about the timelines and continuity. I think the best way to appease these people is to try to follow the timeline of episodes 4-6, have the major battles and times that people can join these events. This way people can get in on major battles, but you can heavily design the battles to make sure the outcome is the same as the movie, but it allows people to take part in battle like the battle of hoth, if we got to get in on that(even tho the rebels have to lose) so many people will be happy they just got in on it. Then once the timeline is completed on endor at the end of episode 6 then we are pretty much not limited anymore and can grow as an immersive community and not have to worry about continuity.
Hope you guys like my ideas, please give me some feedback on what ya like or any changes that would make any of these better.