Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Weekly Rountdable Discussion (Week Ending 2-1-04)
There are lots of ideas for sure, but right now, the team is focused on the Combat balance, the GCW, the Jedi Revamp, Correspondent/CSR issues, the publish theme, getting the existing professions improved and the dungeons
Well the way I see it, TH, you talk about KD being an exploit, and defense stacking being an exploit, but you wish to combat it diferently than I would. 2 examples.
1. KD spamming to keep people on the ground. You say make it to where it cant be spammed, I say you just need to increase the defense versus dizzy and KD for every elite profession to where at master of a ranged profession there isonly 50% chance of KDing the ranged opponent and for melee class, there is only a 30% chance of KDing the melee opponent, varrying slightly on each profession of course.
2. Defense stacking. You say eliminate it. I understand how high these can stak and how it could get to be unbalanced, however, I say if you got low defenses, and want to get some from somewhere you should be aloud. So instead of removing it and ruining a big part of character uniqueness, I say put a limit on it, say 80-90 range?
Wouldnt you like to do this in a way to where its not so extreme like I mentioned, and not totaly ruin certain skill investments people have made?
Thunderheart wrote:
Because knockdown, while a very cool move in theory is very exploitable. In rapid succession, its used to pin players down and create many situations where players can't get back up. The devs are working on a compromise to keep KDs in, but not in a way where it can be exploited so badly.
I am going to ask a question and I doubt I will get an answer:
Are you going to screw up my PvE experience in-game to fix a possible PvP problem?
There has been lots of talk about all those things EXCEPT the Jedi Revamp. When can we expect more communication regarding the proposed changes?
Thunderheart wrote:
There are lots of ideas for sure, but right now, the team is focused on the Combat balance, the GCW, the Jedi Revamp, Correspondent/CSR issues, the publish theme, getting the existing professions improved and the dungeons. Brand new stuff is going to be a ways off for sure. I do like the idea of a "resource engineer" though.
In the beginning of the game wookiees were a viable race. With the introduction of composite with 90% resists the lack of armor makes being a wookiee and competitive IMPOSSIBLE even in Pvp as the mobs are made harder. There isn't even anywhere we can address this concern given the fact that there isn't a race specific board hierarchy. I feel that this post will be lost amongst countless others... as I prepair to kill off my much loved wookiee...
sigh
Although I understand that you are aware of PvE, it sure seems like A LOT of changes (i.e nerfs) in the past have been made to professions solely due to something being inbalanced in PvP. Since you obviously know that onlt 15% or so PvP (if it's even that high), I hope that it will be in focus but not the major focus of the combat rebalancing.
Thunderheart wrote:
Skedoozy wrote:I have a question..With everything being balanced for PVP doesnt this leave the people who don't PVP out in the cold? While you make sure PROFESSION A can't destory 10 PROFESSION B's in PVP you are also making sure that PROFESSION A is going to be destroyed in PvE. You guys keep balancing things for PVP and making PVE more and more unbalanced. I know it's hard to tell but a lot of people don't play this game just to PVP.Thats a good question. Thats why there is a focus on getting the dungeons in. Also, a lot of the correspondent issues are non-combat/PvE enhancing.
One thing to consider is that the Combat Balance is just as important to PvE as it is PvP. The combat balance all by itself solves almost 40% of the Correspondent issues.
(fwiw, roughly 15% of players are engaged in PvP though that number fluctuates a bit).
I made the mistake of looking at the new chef foods last night.
There are some wildly diverse foods in there. Many are useful, im sure. There's a bonus to experimentation. There's a bonus to terrain negotiaion. There's even pet foods now. And yet the top ten chef foods for the last 7 months are flat out gone.
The reasoning given was that with the upcoming combat changes, they won't be needed. You know, I'm going to get a new car soon, I'll sell my current one NOW since I won't need it in a few months. In fact, most of the combat changes I have seen have been removals of existing tools with the premise that "when the combat balance is done" all will be different.
This upcoming publish is NOT the foretold combat balance pass. This upcoming publish does NOT address the need to players to have more mind than is possible through stat migration*. As it stands, the single biggest killer in the game is mind damage. Whether it's from players killing themselves by spamming specials, from certain classes targeting mind in pvp, or just high end mob killing in large groups and healers being unable to keep their party on their feet.
As a combat class, I'm going to horde my mind foods. I have to, the combat changes may take as much as two months to address this problem. And there's NOTHING in the pipeline to address healers keeping their party on their feet. /healmind is a last ditch effort and is more harmful than useful.
As a master chef, I'm going to pull my foods from my vendor until after the publish and make millions, MILLIONS selling pre-nerf Fishak and Ryshcate. No wait, players will just go back to Muon. I have a hard enough time stocking my menu of 10 combat useful foods. I've yet to have a single customer or player city resident beg me to make the new foods - yet I was getting email constantly on my way up chef asking about the eta of the foods that I carry on my menu. Perhaps it's time I became an armorsmith - they're looking at winning big when the combat pass happens as encumbrance won't be as hindering.
As a master doctor/combat medic, im going to visit every single chef I know and buy out their stock of GGP and Vercupti. I can't keep my party on their feet as it stands when we go on raids. I've got some wonderful screen shots of 15 people dead at maximum health and action, but no mind.
Please, for the love, Don't implement change based on how something will be. I don't drive 180kph in california because I know I'll be on the autobahn next month. I can't go shopping for food on monday with a zero balance because I'll get paid on Friday. Don't remove functionality now because it will all be made better when the combat balance is complete.
* (and i'm sorry, entertainer buffs are simply not worth the time/effort involved in attaining them with no real idea of the buff duration - and honestly, since I don't sit in front of a doctor for 8-15 minutes to get 6 stats buffed, why should I sit in a cantina for 8-15 minutes for questionable buffs - but perhaps that's another rant)