Development Cycle Archive
Thread: In-Concept Open Discussion (7-5-04)
Arconis_Runicblade
Sun Jul 04, 2004 11:52 pm
#261
I'm going to gripe about CM's
They are way to powerful... I don't care what you devs think... they completely unbalance pvp....
Something needs to be done...
I heard several things...
/rant on
mind will be healable... doesn't matter if your mind is gone in one tick
Mitigation spice... that would be cool if i wasn't a Roleplayer and didn't beleive in spice.... you going to screw Roleplayer to? why not you already screwed the rest of the game population... we shouldn't be forced to use something like spice because a class is overpowered
Something needs to be done with poison... either A) Power needs to be reduced or B) Time between damage of poison needs to be 1 minute...
CM's should not and are not supposed to be the end all be all of PvP... there is no skill in CM.. you just click a button and poison a bunch of people... Please do something about this... atleast care enough to actually see there is a problem here!
Combat Rebalance is fine... but do something about the entire CM owns the world problem please?!
/rant off
Thyriel
Mon Jul 05, 2004 2:32 am
#262
An idea wegot in the german forum during a discussion about docs buffing and the problems with it:
Give Master doctors 2 titles when they reach it, as it is Master Doctor and additionally, more a tag, but setable as a title, that is something like "Currently Buffing" so people would easily see who is buffing and who not, and could also run searches for doctors that r buffing...
Ieshedi
Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:25 am
#263
Daeyron wrote:
here is a suggestion for those of you who have ever had a group leader go AFK or LD...
/requestgroupleadership
a petition by any member of a group to be made the leader of said group. if not answered within one minute, the person who filed petition becomes leader. only one petition may be made at any time (like "x is already considering an invitation from another group," but here, "x has already petitioned to be made group leader").
why? well, in some cases, group leaders go afk for extended periods of time ("i'm going to grab something out of the fridge" turns into "i'm going to bake a three course meal, and man, i make a wicked souffle) or, worse, go LD. this makes it impossible to invite new members, kick members who have gone LD or AFK and are needlessly taking up spots, and replace the leader with someone capable of performing certain leader-only functions (squad leader commands and bonuses, band leader commands, etc.). right now, the only way to resolve the AFK/LD leader issue is to disband and form a new group. because group members are not always in the same place, disbanding is not always an option.
is this really helpful? yes, i think it would help solo mission groups a great deal, and would also be a boon to entertainer bands in cantinas. (of course, these might be two things the devs want to destroy with the combat balance and the end of hologrinding, respectively.) since i've seen quite a few people go LD during combat recently (though this may be an exploit), i figure it will also help pvpers who suffer the loss of a leader and want to add members to a pick-up battle in theed or wherever.
just a thought, hope someone picks it up and runs with it.
-dc
Personally, I'd like to see them do away with the ability to solo group. I can't believe it was an intentional design to allow this. The simple fix would be to not award points to the group if group members aren't within XX meters of the mission at mission completion. A better fix would be to only award a % of the points to the group members at the mission locations.
I know some people live for solo missions, sobefore anyone gets a wedgie and flames me...
Obviously when you get toa certain level the missions and rewards aren't fullfilling enough. So let's fix that as well. It's just that Idon't think missions should be to grind credits. Some players are so powerful, the missions have no challenge. There should always be a threat of death and dismemberment with any mission. 
I've watched one of my friends run solo mission after solo mission, grinding thousands of credits in a kind of mindless haze. Where's the challenge?
powerchord
Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:33 am
#264
please spare us! Too many empty vendors out there. Please make a way that we can check the contants of a vendor with out traveling all over the place
Wizard_Thoarin
Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:36 am
#265
Here is one thing I would like to see:
A Group Dungeon Mission Terminal. This would create a temporaryinstanced group dungeon with the following abilities.
1. Only players in the group prior to obtaining the dungeon quest would be able to enter the dungeon. Only the Group Leader (or maybe a Squad Leader) could initate access to the Group Dungeon Mission Terminal opening access for everyone else in the group and locking the group. If anyone leaves the group, the dungeon should auto self destruct unless that member rejoins the group in a reasonable amount of time. this reasonable amount of time should be just long enough to cover people that get disconnected for some reason and need to log back in. It should also only self destruct if a member leaves the group prior to entering the dungeon, however any member leaving the group while in the dungeon should be auto kicked out of the dungeon and locked out without being able to re-join the group to get back in (no second chances once the dungeon is being accessed).
2. Each player in the group would access the Group Dungeon Mission Terminal to choose two mobs that would help populate the dungeon. This would ensure that the mobs in the dungeon are appropriately challenging to the player group entering the dungeon.
3. One or two extra mobs per member in the group of random difficulty added to the dungeon.
4. Temporary locations similar to a lair spawn except that a dungeon or bunker entrance spawns instead of the typical nest or humanoid buildings.
5. Destruction of the lair through access of a special terminal at the very end of the dungeon. This Self Destruct terminal should have the following features.
a. The Self Destruct Terminal should have a player set timer for when the self destruct happens. This can effect how long the players have to escape the dungeon and how long any remaining mobs in the dungeon have to shut off the self destruct.
b. If any mobs are left in the dungeon when accessing the terminal, they get a chance to shut it down.
c. If the mobs left in the building do shut it down they get to call in re-inforcements for the dungeon through the same terminal which would re-populate a random percentage of the dungeon. I would also suggest that making the number of times the mobs can successfully shut down the self destruct a random number generated when the mission is taken with a variable ranging from 1 to the number of members in the group. This random roll should not generate how many times they actually shut down the self destruct but how many times they have a chance to shut down the self destruct. Keep the players guessing in case they try to milk the dungeon for loads of experience.
d. If the mobs do not shut off the self destruct mechanism the dungeon is destroyed but any remaining mobs in the dungeon do not give experience.
e. If the players are still in the dungeon when the self destruct mechanism goes off then the players take damage equal to a percentage of their HAM based on how far away they are from the center of the blast (i.e. where the terminal is). If they players are almost out they would take minimal damage, but if they choose to stay in the room with the self destruct terminal they should be activating a new clone. Any surviving players are deposited on the surface just outside the entrance of the destroyed dungeon.
f. A dungeon that self destructs should produce a plume of smoke and burn away over a short period of time say a half hour to an hour of game time.
6. The dungeons themselves should have several different layouts or maybe even a random layout. The random layout could be based on the number of mobs in the dugeon when it is generated. Say one room per Mob with the ability for the mobs to travel between the rooms.
7. All mobs in thedungeon should be friendly towards each other and become unfriendly towards the entire group once one member of the mob is attacked by a group member. This is a group dungeon after all with no innocent bystanders here sitting back to heal with no risk involved.
8. Any random mob in the dungeonshould have the chance totake the form of traps such pop-upturrets from the floor or ceiling, or even hidden compartments that release combat droids under certain circumstances.Pop-up turrets should have a range of attack forms from Combat Medic Poison and Disease, Blaster Fire or any other ranged attack including grenades from a grenade launcher turret. Some of these traps could even be set toreveal themselvesonly when the self destruct mechanism is activated, possibly slowing down the players escape from the dungeon.
9. For really high powered groups taking on a dungeon there should be a chance of the mobs in the dungeon having better then normal armor and maybe even PSG's (Personal Shield Generators). Armor and PSG's could even be added to certain traps such as pop-up turrets or combat droids.
10. Rewards for this mission should be relevant to the risk. Payouts should be made per mob in the dungeon as well as for the dungeon itself. Each mob should have a chance to generate some kind of loot that reflects the difficulty of the mob along with a chance atrandom loot that represents the difficulty of the dungeon overall.
11. Add faction based group dungeons where the members of the group must all be of the same faction. In order for one of these to show up on the mission terminal all members of the group must be of the same faction.
12. The player initiating the Group Dungeon Mission should have a list of themes with their reward. Any faction based themes should only be present if condition 11 above is met. Themes could range from Faction based to Genosian, or even Criminal and Trade Federation. Any group could have a theme on the terminal including Swoop Gang Hideout or Meatlump Retreat.
The possibilites are endless for this kind of instanced temporary dungeon. With faction based missions you could get the feal of temporary rebel hideouts or even Imperial Reinfocement bunkers for troublesome areas, you could even get the feal for criminal organizations. Make this so that an in game GM can link several of these dungeons to a planetary theme that can be resolved by one faction or another over a short period of time and you can increase the story potential for the galaxy. This could be a great addition to the game in my opinion.
Thanks,
Wizard Thoarin
Wizard_Thoarin
Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:39 am
#266
I forgot one thing for the Group Dungeon Mission Terminal. Add Jedi dungeons to the terminals for all Jedi groups. This could add a lot of dynamic content for the jedi that are out there and make their grind less tedious.
Thanks,
Wizard Thoarin
DrakoZenro
Mon Jul 05, 2004 12:50 pm
#267
I'm not sure if this has ever been suggested before but I'd like to see poeple inside the same guild have a different color for their names similar to same faction = purple. It would be nice to easily spot a fellow guildmate through the big crowds. The color would prob have to be something like orange, since most of the colors are used in some way or the other. This could even go further to friends on your friend list.
ToppDog
Mon Jul 05, 2004 1:47 pm
#268
Universal Numbered Color Palette:
This would be an identical palette system to be used by all professions for all functions & schematics, & the only variation would be in the colors allowed or restricted for certain functions & schematics. The main benefits would be simplicity & ease of future changes for the dev team, & the ability to accurately reference & colormatch between professions for players.
This universal color palette would appear the same to all professions with all color boxes in the exact same geographical locations from palette to palette, & each color would be assigned a number that would also be the same from palette to palette, resulting in a perfect colormatch when selecting the same numbered color between palettes of differing professions.
In the instances where certain colors are restricted or not allowed in a certain function or schematic, they would be represented by an X'd out box where they would otherwise normally be filled in, so that the overall positioning of the unrestricted colors remains in the same position for easy reference between palettes.
The color screens would be able to be scrolled up & down so that all the individual color boxes could remain in an easy to see larger size, instead of making them too small to see or click on as they are currently for many functions & schematics.
Olicc
Mon Jul 05, 2004 3:00 pm
#269
I'm currently grinding master Musican in an attempt to unlock before pub10 andI have had a lot of time to think. Mostly I've been thinking about how boring it is to be an entertainer. Once you hit master, you can make a decent living selling mind buffs, but the bots are pretty much taking over this trade and there are better ways to make money.
So I was thinking of ways to make Musician more fun and here is what I came up with.
Let musicians write new songs and sell them as schematics.
Basically, this would require some kind of tool that lets you arrange notes, up to three different harmonies and a rhythm track.
You would need to have music knowledge 4 to write music and the song level would be based on the instrument limitation. For example, if you allow the song to be played by an Ommni Box, then the user would have to have at least Music Knowledge 4 to play the song, and if you allow a nalagon, then they would have to be master. (The user must satisfy all instrument requirements to play the song).
You would need to write the basic song track(2 measures) and 4 - 8 flourishes.
You could create the song in three ways:
1 Sheet Music: If you know how to write sheet music, you could write it in this way.
2Piano tool: There is a cheesypiano graphic on the screen and you would need to click the mouse on the note you want when you want it to play. It loops the track over and over and stacks what you do on each pass. You could also use keyboard keys to play the song.
3 dummy tool: Some other way to create the music that people with no musical ability could use. Maybe premade riffs that you could drag into position. Something really easy.
You sell the schems and they work like song certifications. You can't play the song without the schem and would get an error message if you hit /startmusic while your group was playing that song and you didn't have the schem.
It would be pretty cool to walk into a cantina and hear 20 musicians and dancers using your song.
If there were more songs to choose from, musicians would be able to create set lists instead of playing the same song for 16 hours straight.
You would be able to create the song for 'free distribution' which would let others trade and sell the schem themselves, or copywrited which allows only the owner of the masterschem to sell the song (masterschem can be sold/traded).
You would be limited to your datapad space for the amount of songs you could play (like waypoints).
What do you guys think? Can you think of others ideas to make it better?
efin
Mon Jul 05, 2004 3:44 pm
#270
powerchord wrote:
please spare us! Too many empty vendors out there. Please make a way that we can check the contants of a vendor with out traveling all over the place
Yes! Like maybe on the overhead map, have their titles different colors. Or when you look at them at the very least, show the total number ofitemsabove their heads. Clicking on them, waiting, then clicking refresh, waiting... it just takes too long.
J27
Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:02 pm
#271
an idea about the friendslist:
make it possible to a add or remove all people from your guild at once.
(auto add/remove funnction would be nice too)
It takes a lot of time to add/remove people by hand everyday, especially because sometimes half of my guild detaches temporarly to form another guild for a war. while in the meantime people detach for real and new people are being added.
(lol i hope someones reading this extremely long thread
SrecoSasmi
Mon Jul 05, 2004 8:38 pm
#272
Whatever happened to that awesome music that used to play when you get badges?!! i remember when i first got a badge and it played Augie's Grand Municipal Band (the ending theme to episode 1 with the huge parade) it was so awesome to hear that music when i got a badge. and also it played awesome music when i got the warren compassion but now it only plays a stupid little sound when you get them.
SHARKTICUS
Mon Jul 05, 2004 8:42 pm
#273
Hello,
I love the game and I think that everyone behind the game is on to a real winner, but I can't help but feel a lot of things have been rushed and are unbalanced in game with a real "let's get it out there and fix it later". Apologies for the lengthy post.
A few things that I think personally could be improved upon in the game:
1). Missions:
Issue: Missions are currently quite stale and boring. Who are you doing the missions for? No-one. Where is the money coming from for the missions? Just generated credits. Why bother doing a lot of the missions, for instance the surveying missions? No-one has said that they need that material. It's just another generated goal.
Issue: Missions are currently quite stale and boring. Who are you doing the missions for? No-one. Where is the money coming from for the missions? Just generated credits. Why bother doing a lot of the missions, for instance the surveying missions? No-one has said that they need that material. It's just another generated goal.
Why not allow people to place their own missions on the terminals? This way you can use your profession to actually do something that will count in the game. as an example: If an Artisan needs 100K of Steel with certain qualities - they should be able to post this as a mission on the terminals in game. This way those people with lots of harvesters should be able to accept one of these mission (the payment should be locked into the system from the supplier of the mission to guarantee a payout) and try to complete it. If the criteria have been met, just like you can put the items on the bazaar, why not essentially leave them somewhere for the Artisan to collect. Mission done - the person with the proper skills for the mission has used his skills for a reason, the Artisan has what he/she needs and there is far more involvement in the game between players.
This currently happens on the forums. Why is this not happening in-game? I find myself getting somewhat pulled out of the experience if it's me having to browse a website forum for business interactivity rather than my character looking at a terminal in game for the same type of business.
Need a certain meet type? Get those Rangers using their tracking skills! Rangers would love that I am sure! I have contracts with people that I have setup by meeting the right people at the right times - works wonders and was particularly good when I could track animals.
The same could be done for Bounty Hunters - there are plenty of people who find that there is someone that has annoyed them or wronged them in game (hopefully all in character) - put a contract out on them!! You know the BH community is waiting to hunt other characters. Need a hit on an Imperial character without advertising that you are in the Rebellion? This would be a lot of fun and make for a lot more player interaction. It would also make good use of the BH skills (I realise of course that this is the idea with hunting Jedi - but there are a lot of characters that aren't Jedi - why should they be immune?). These sorts of missions could be arranged through certain NPCs (acting the same as mission terminals by handing out missions) in the seedier places like cantinas etc in the not so nice parts of town!
2). Factions:
Issue 1: (This has been mentioned before and I apologise for not mentioning your name but there are a lot of posts to sift through again, but I would like to add my support to the idea). Currently, you can find a Rebel base no problem on any planet - if I can find one - surely the Empire can!! I thought that during this time in the Star Wars world, The Empire is supposed to be in full power still. Surely the Rebel bases shouldn't be so easy to find - they should be hidden (as someone else also mentioned like the Hoth base etc) so that they are not easy to find unless you are a member of the Rebel Alliance and you know someone who knows about it! An example springs to mind of the "Secret Rebel Base" (i.e. Rebel Theme Park) that you sometimes see pop up on the loading screens - not much of a secret when the location is given for everyone to see!
Issue 1: (This has been mentioned before and I apologise for not mentioning your name but there are a lot of posts to sift through again, but I would like to add my support to the idea). Currently, you can find a Rebel base no problem on any planet - if I can find one - surely the Empire can!! I thought that during this time in the Star Wars world, The Empire is supposed to be in full power still. Surely the Rebel bases shouldn't be so easy to find - they should be hidden (as someone else also mentioned like the Hoth base etc) so that they are not easy to find unless you are a member of the Rebel Alliance and you know someone who knows about it! An example springs to mind of the "Secret Rebel Base" (i.e. Rebel Theme Park) that you sometimes see pop up on the loading screens - not much of a secret when the location is given for everyone to see!
Issue 2: If I am a high ranking officer - say a Colonel - why can I not control more than one Stormtrooper for example? Seems a little odd to me that the only use for a high ranking officer is that you can hold more FPs. That seems to me to be a rather worthless use of your rank! You should be able to command a larger force surely as your rank dictates.
Issue 3: Why can't one of the professions themselves be a faction-based profession? So - you start off as a "Novice" trooper and earn your XP by aiding The Empire/Rebellion? Rather than sitting outside of a faction HQ and farming the NPCs. How about providing security to bases and PC/NPC cities etc from possible attacks? That to me sounds like a lot more fun and far more like you are getting involved in the galactic struggle! This would be a nice way to earn your rank, rather than spending FPs on it.
3). Risk/Covert/Overt:
Issue 1: I find that there is no sense of danger in the game. There is nothing to lose. Of course the devs don't want to put people off of their games and they don't want them to quit the game if their character dies - hence the whole clone thing. The only risk from getting killed in game is that your equipment will lose some of its condition. A large portion of players can buy a new suit of armour no problem I am sure - and your wounds can be healed either by a doc or through medidation. So - if my character dies - no risk. I'm still in the same group, I can get back in the buff line and jump back in the action! Easy. But not really a worry. I think it would be a lot nicer if your character dies, then that's the end of him. Obviously you will have a lot of stuff, but perhaps your new character can "inherit" these items so that they are not lost (otherwise no-one would fight any more!). But I think that you should risk losing the currently skills that you have aquired. A lot of people I am sure would worry that this is a lot of work- but that's the idea - if your character is dead - surely that is the end of him? Even if you get a clone of your physical self as it can be a lot of work to create a new character and you will probably like what you have, the profs should be lost. Surely you are cloning the DNA and not the skills that you have learned during the life of the character? These are learned traits afterall.
Issue 1: I find that there is no sense of danger in the game. There is nothing to lose. Of course the devs don't want to put people off of their games and they don't want them to quit the game if their character dies - hence the whole clone thing. The only risk from getting killed in game is that your equipment will lose some of its condition. A large portion of players can buy a new suit of armour no problem I am sure - and your wounds can be healed either by a doc or through medidation. So - if my character dies - no risk. I'm still in the same group, I can get back in the buff line and jump back in the action! Easy. But not really a worry. I think it would be a lot nicer if your character dies, then that's the end of him. Obviously you will have a lot of stuff, but perhaps your new character can "inherit" these items so that they are not lost (otherwise no-one would fight any more!). But I think that you should risk losing the currently skills that you have aquired. A lot of people I am sure would worry that this is a lot of work- but that's the idea - if your character is dead - surely that is the end of him? Even if you get a clone of your physical self as it can be a lot of work to create a new character and you will probably like what you have, the profs should be lost. Surely you are cloning the DNA and not the skills that you have learned during the life of the character? These are learned traits afterall.
Issue 2: A lot of people don't want to get involved with PvP or indeed any combat because that's not what they are in to. I always thought that the Star Wars world was a dangerous place however - why else would most characters carry weapons? It's a big galaxy with a lot of dangers. I think that anyone should be able to attack anything, however there should be consequences such as troops in the city (perhaps this could even be a prof - to guard the NPC cities - would be nice as a Stormtrooper for instance to be doing your bit for the Empire as stated in "Issue 3" above, under "2). Factions". This would stop everyone just shooting things because if they care about their character, they "risk" their character getting killed or perhaps put into a hold cell for a few days?! Again - I think that this would be a nice touch peronsally. I like the idea of being on-guard all of the time and having to look after my character. This would negate the whole Covert/Overt solution that was obviously put in place to get around anything like this.
4). Inventories:
Issue: Why can I carry 59 house in my invetory and another 50 in my backpack? Same goes for large tables etc - sounds kind of heavy to me and awkward. I can't put another backpack in another backpack afterall. You should have to move large items in large vehicles or on large mounts - or you pay to have it delivered to where you want it - just thinking of a little realism here! A nice business venture if you want to get into haulage. There are a lot of items in Galaxies and lot of people are on the move all of the time.
Issue: Why can I carry 59 house in my invetory and another 50 in my backpack? Same goes for large tables etc - sounds kind of heavy to me and awkward. I can't put another backpack in another backpack afterall. You should have to move large items in large vehicles or on large mounts - or you pay to have it delivered to where you want it - just thinking of a little realism here! A nice business venture if you want to get into haulage. There are a lot of items in Galaxies and lot of people are on the move all of the time.
5). Misc:
Last of all - just want to say what nice ideas there were of having appartments in the NPC cities - it would be so much more immersive and would mean that people would start to use cities other than Coronet and Theed as well. Perhaps the most expensive appartments would be in places like Coronet etc, but some people might want to move to somewhere a little cheaper on the rent such as Tyrena. I for one know that I have often wanted to walk inside the many buildings that are in these great looking cities and have a look inside to see what the devs have created - but alas, it is not possible. I think that this would breath a whole new life into the NPC cities and make them far more enjoyable places to be in. Well done to those who came up with that!
Multipassenger vehicles - also great - I would like to give friends a lift to a mission! Why not? There is enough space in the vehicles afterall. And - why are there so few vehicles? Surely a few more would make for some nice variety! Custom designed vehicles would be nice - certain components to design them and give a unique look to a range of vehicles.
AT-STs - make them vehicles. It's not really a pet is it?
"/end rant"
Thanks very much - if you read through all of that - wow! I would love to hear any feedback from fellow players if anyone has any.
Regards,
SHARKTICUS
SHARKTICUS
--Eclipse Server--