Development Cycle Archive
Thread: In-Concept Open Discussion (7-5-04)
Targetam
Tue Jul 06, 2004 3:49 pm
#287
A few nights ago, I received an in-game e-mail message about an item that sat in my vendor's stock room for too long, and was deleted as a result.
I idly wondered, "so, what happened to that item? Did my vendor sell it on the black market or something?" For that matter, what happened to everyone else's items that have vaporized over the years?
The current implementation of the Smuggler class really doesn't smuggle much of anything - and that does not seem to match the game continuity. When this first came up in the forums, someone made a comment that it was really hard to come up with an effective smuggling system that was immune to greifing.
So, here is a rough proposal:
Add "black market" contacts throughout the game - Kadaara, for example.
Whenever an item is deleted from the game due to automatic processes (either the vendor stockroom expiration limit, or houses burning down, or data cleanup after a specific player is deleted), transfer the items to a local black market fences, who offers missions to smugglers to carry the contraband to some remote planet. Of course, the Imperial crack down would treat these items as contraband. Travelling through the starports and shuttleports with contraband might spawn troopers - the most populated cities (Coronet, Theed) being almost 50% likely to search the smuggler, while the least or most criminal being the least likely to search.
Now, I am of two minds about how these missions can go.
- The first is to require the player to cross the galaxy and put them item up for sale on the Bazaar at a remote planet. This way, the "lost" items come back into circulation ... but it seems incongruous.
- The second is to put them items into locked smuggling containers. If the smuggler delivers the item unopened, they get the mission money. If they slice open the container, but finish the mission anyway, they get only half of mission award. If they slice open the container and remove anything ... they get exposure on the Bounty Hunter terminals, but they get to keep the item.
An option would be to deliver the item to an NPC Fence, who sells the item at a nearby Junk shop ... once the smuggler leaves the planet. (Logs out, starport, or JTL travel). Put a timer on the item at the Junk Dealer, and if it isn't bought within a week or so, delete it from the game.
The only problem I can think of is pricing ... you have a number available in your database if the item is deleted from a vendor, but not if the item was deleted when a house burned down. Of course, you could randomly set a price that is 4-10 times the mission payout to the smuggler (hey, the fence needs to make money, too!), and let it be a free-for-all for who can buy the krayt pearl at 4000 CR.
TivoTenook
Tue Jul 06, 2004 8:25 pm
#288
can you please make all creatures under level 70 tamable?
(there is only one creature - the bull rancor- between level 60 and 70 that is tamable for a master CH. others such as the arachne queen, bark mite burrower queen, and gronda juggernaut should all be tamable to give us a challenge and variety for high level rares...not to mention all the other pets under level 70 that are currently not tamable)
Cartouche
Tue Jul 06, 2004 8:31 pm
#289
I would like an "adventure zone" to be created on Tatooine, that would be at the very least as perilous as Dath or Endor.
Tatooine is the planet where it all started. Of all the planets in the game, I find it to be the most "starwarsy", but I also think itdeserves a better treatment than the highly built and "civilized" starting planet that it is now. Most of Taooine is supposed to be harsh and inhospitable. Please create a zone with these characteristics.
I started on Tatooine, and used to spend most of my time there. Not anymore. The only place that I still regularly visit is the Krayt graveyard. The recent high-end spawns at Fort Tusken are welcome, but not enough in my opinion.
Here is what I suggest to bring veteran players back to Tatooine, and to make the planet more challenging overall:
- Extend the dune sea beyond Wayfar and Jabba's palace.
- Make it a no-player-city and no-shuttleport zone.
- Make Krayts spawn in the dune sea. If necessary, reduce the krayts' drop rate to keep tissues rare.
- Add a large Tusken village with very-high-end spawns (observer, executioner, champion, torture lord, gore master--or whatever they were called) and fast respawns. Make it a dungeon with an end-goal and several lines of defense, like the geo lab (as opposed to Fort Tusken which has no other point than killing for xp).
- Add random smaller Tusken villages (like the random Nighsister camps on Dath or the Marauder camps on Endor).
- Consider adding Tuskens to the mission terminals--low and mid-level missions in all the cities, and high-end missions in Wayfar only. Make the missions significantly more difficult than enraged rancor lairs or Mokk Shaman camps, so that they can't be soloed.
Cartouche, Scylla
Thraxious
Tue Jul 06, 2004 9:49 pm
#290
Boba Fett's helmet was more than just a protective layer between him and the outside world. It had different view modes built in, macrobinoculars, targeting computers, rebreathers, etc... and other stuff built in. It served as a tool for assisting the infamous bounty hunter in doing what he did best.
Storm troopers have anti-flashbang gear loaded into their helmets, comlinks set up to promote group communication, targetting computers, half a dozen vision modes to cope with stressful combat situations, etc... Hell, storm commando's had their own air supplies to counter act gas attacks.
So what if we tried to incoporate that into your armor pieces?
What if you armorsmiths could choose to replace a layer with say... An air filter (to counter act mind poisons from those pesky CM's) or a simple target computer built into the visor (to help counter act blind, whilst improving general ranged accuracy).
Such things had to be built directly into the armor, and would take up layers as compensation from "uber armor pieces". (Combat balancing!)
In order to assist the variety of armor we see these days (I don't know about you lot, but aside from Ubese and Composite, nobody really seems to wear anything else these days), perhaps only certain modifications would be available to certain suits of armor.
So, ideas for added pieces (which would be built and experimented by a variety of different professions) might be;
Air Filters: Takes up an armor layer, gives a +X resistance to disease/ poison. Requires a droid engineer/ architect/ artistan/ bio engineer to craft and experiment out. Targeting Computers: Built by weapon smiths, takes up an armor layer, and gives a +X to general ranged accuracy or +X to aim...
Infra red, Electromagnetics, motion tracking, etc...: (Yes, I play too much SP : PD for my own good) provides the user with +X to ranged/ melee defence. The visors tracking abilities give the player the ability to be more prepared for incoming salvo's and thus act in accordance. In-built cybernetic servos: This might be more of a "all over the armor" thing. The bonuses from each would be extremely small, forcing an entire suit to have them imbedded to work, but it'd offer something like +X to dodge. In built servo's help to 'heighten' the being's reflexes, etc... Body Glove: Such systems were supposedly designed to help regulate the temperature/ moisture of the being within the suit to help compensate in extremely desperate conditions. Aside from helping warm a trooper up when it was cold, and monitor body status, the body glove would also help calm the body down in the event of too much stress... Something like this could be represented with a +X resistance to intimidate/ stun/ dizzy. Again, this might be something which would be found all across the armor in smaller dosages.
I'm not surehow you guys see this... but quite frankly, we've already got armor attachments which kinda do this. In that sense, such modifications would be easy to add from a programming point of view.
In the same spirit as what tailors get with bio-engineered stuff, perhaps its time you armorsmiths got something you could add into the armor itself.
Hell I mean... this would seem to make more sense to me than a bunch of bio engineered clothes... *shrug*
I posted this a while ago on the armorsmith forums and the lot of them seemed to like the idea. Just something to throw around!
Check out the rest of the thread for some of the other responses!
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=armorsmith&message.id=46468
Xifera
Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:33 pm
#291
I would like to build on a suggestion to help prevent clone wars:
Instead of giving the player a 15 minute "down-time" where they can't attack after dying, how about making it a stepped system? E.G. The first time someone dies, they can jump back into the battle with no delay. However, the second time they must wait, say (for example only) 2 minutes. From there, have the "no-attack" time increase exponentially with every death. This way players are not prevented from getting back into the battle, but they ARE prevented from endless die > clone > die > clone wars. (*Looks menacingly at all the CM's*)
Instead of giving the player a 15 minute "down-time" where they can't attack after dying, how about making it a stepped system? E.G. The first time someone dies, they can jump back into the battle with no delay. However, the second time they must wait, say (for example only) 2 minutes. From there, have the "no-attack" time increase exponentially with every death. This way players are not prevented from getting back into the battle, but they ARE prevented from endless die > clone > die > clone wars. (*Looks menacingly at all the CM's*)
About the recent "item delay" fix: One would think that ANY delay would keep the macro exploit from happening. So please lessen it so it is less intrusive. I encourage a dev to long in andattempt to put on a set of armor,as it ispainfully slow. One good fix would be that the delay would not be in effect if you weren't in combat.
Faction pets: I would be fine with leaving AT-ST's extremely weak and able to be killed by one person (*cough*), but if they stay that way, at least take away perma-death. Not one person should have the ability to take something that would cost 940k worth of FP away. In regards to rebel pets, I don't recall seeing rebels have something the equivelent of an AT-ST in any movie or book. Rebels aresupposed to bethe "underdogs," so please, for logic and continuity's sake, don't give rebelsa pet.
StarWars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. Food for thought: what exactly is divided?
WookieRebel
Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:40 pm
#292
________________________________________________________________________________________
"Hey Thunder, is there anyway someone who works on this game can add "Commas" to all numbers and "Right Align" the numbers in the inventory window so that its easyer to see how much you have in the inventory?
A Few Examples.. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Inventory] Cash: 1,000,000 Bank: 1,000 [System Messages] Person has tipped you 100,000 credits. Mission Complete: You recieve 10,000 credits." _________________________________________________________________________________
Totally Agree. Very good and worthwhile change to the game if done.
Message Edited by WookieRebel on 07-06-2004 10:41 PM
Sskari
Tue Jul 06, 2004 11:02 pm
#293
I would love to see slot machines much like those that already exist in cantinas to be able to be made by players and ran in player city cantinas and player homes.
DarkSmyth
Tue Jul 06, 2004 11:11 pm
#294
Well, I was gonna [post this on the new thread but it didn't come out today.
Ok, all of you at SOE from the head cheese on down need to bring what you are doing to a screeching halt!
Get together with the folks at LucasArts, maybe even Mr. Lucas himself. You all need to take a day (probably a week), all get together, sit down, and read what the player base is telling you all on these forums. Head to the GCW board especially, if you all do not read the forums you will be in for a shock. This game istaking a nosedive, and you all are fools if you don’t/can’t/won’t see it and do something about it now! PLEASE for the love of God, do something to fix all this before it is too late! About all I can say to you all. If you want my suggestions, read my sig.
Take care, have a great day.
I think this post here pretty much sums up how most of us are feeling at the moment...
A post from a thread I started on the GCW boards.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=GCW&message.id=210831#M210831
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=GCW&message.id=210831#M210831
IamReikan from Shadowfire said the following...
About a year ago I bought this game. I remember being reall excited about it. Not only was this an MMO based on Star Wars but if I ever got bored of killing storm troopers and rancors I could always pick up a crafting, or entertaining profession to keep me entertained. I really enjoyed the idea of having different avenues of play. The first several months were awesome. I remember hunting Tuskens with sixteen other people (all of us in bone armor) and still running like hell whenever more than one came out or the feared Tusken bantha came charging out of the camp. I also remember trekking by foot across Yavin, searching for exciting things, hoping to find some great place no one's found yet. I was so excited when I stumbled on the Tomb of Exar Kun, even though I had spent nearly three days straight just walking around Yavin with the very real possibility of dieing and having to hike 13kms to fetch my corpse.
Several months into the game I was getting bored with shooting things so I tried being a musician and a dancer. Before the holo craze the cantinas, even in places not called Theed or Coronet had a strong group of people who sat and talked and laughed and even RPed. It was a great enviorment. Most people who came in were happy to sit and RP with the entertainers who at that time, actually entertained.
Then the holo craze swept the galaxies. The cantinas that used to buzz with activity were now filled with afk grinders macroing their exp away. The focus shifted less on picking a profession and working with the community to a "how fast can I get this done by myself?" attitude. I ran into my first "solo group" during the holo craze. I didn't quite understand what they meant till I participated in one. A whole bunch of people grouped together so they could pull higher paying (exp and credit wise) missions and then scattered off in different directions to do their own thing. Any and all sense of teamwork was thrown out the window.
Since PvE was becoming a rather lonesome endeavor I turned to PvP. I was a fencer/pistoleer at the time, and unwittingly one of the infamous FotMs who were invulnerable to damage. It was fun being near unstoppable in PvP...for the first few fights. Then everyone started to become the FotM templates and PvP became a who could get the last warcry in affair. About the time everyone discovered the power of the combat medic I left PvP. It simply wasn't fun anymore.
I then tried out different proffessions but no matter what I was, as long as I had my composite suit and a set of buffs I could wade through anything whether it be a pack of nunas, rancors, or even nightsisters. At about this time, I believe it was March, I realized that I wasn't playing this game because I was having any real fun anymore, but because I liked the people I had metin the game and formed a guild with.I played the game for the people, shelling out 15 dollars a month for a pretty version of AIM.
I started to get on the game less and less. I would log on, talk with whomever was on (there were fewer and fewer people around in my guild) and then wonder what I would do for a few minutes. After realizing there wasn't much to do I'd either continue talking or simply log off. Every now and then some new dungeon would come out.The Warren wasfun, but after struggling through theSuper Battle Droids and insane troopers on the Corvette I pretty much gave up on doing dungeons forfun.
I then took a month long break from the game. When I returned more of my friends had left and not a whole lot had changed, but I hadn't expected much to. I just hoped that a month away would make me enjoy the game again. It did not, but I had nothing else to do 'till WoW came out, so I decided I'd tough it out. A few days ago I was ganked by a dark jedi death squad complete with rifleman and TKM support. I had my character resign from his faction. I didn't feel like contributing to the "ub3r j3d-3y3 for Overlord!" campaign.
It has been a year and soon I will be leaving the game. For a year Squad Leaders have had no reason to lead...or even exist. For a year smugglers have had nothing to smuggle. For a year every other patch has brought a new over powered profession to replace the old FotM that was nerfed into oblivion. For a year I've wondered why one of my favorite Star Wars characters, Darth Vader, just sits in a room scratching himself. For a year the GCW has been nothing but street fights and bases have had no reason to exist. For a year in response to our complaints, suggestions, and whines carrots have been dangled in front of us. "Wait for the droid invasion" they said. "Wait for the combat balance." "JTL is just around the corner!" "Wait for the jedi revamp."
I can no longer justify paying 15 dollars a month just to wait around for one fix all patch that, if it follow recent history, will only create new problems. I can't justify paying any more money just so my character will have a yacht to fly around in come JTL. The management at SOE has made a decision. This game is going to die, there are simply too many problems and not enough time to fix them all. The best way to make more money is rather than fixing things is to cart out content that will attract new players and keep the rest of us strung along just a little longer. Devoting half their team to jedi and the other half to the space expansion fixes nothing, but it will provide SOE with even more money. Financially this game was a huge, huge success. From a gameplay standpoint this game was a moderate failure in the long run, but that doesn't matter as long as a good profit is made. Whileoverall I enjoyed myself in this game, I've come to realize that it was the people I met here more than anything else that provided me with such enjoyment.
This game hadgreat potential. It could have really taken the MMO market in new directions with its original emphasis on the casual gamer and the social gamer.Now this game is no where near its original vision and that, is a shame.
I couldn't state how the majority of us are feeling at the moment any better than this.
arutak
Wed Jul 07, 2004 4:50 am
#295
Is it possible to somehow limit the amount of spam allowed in open spatial chat? Like either create a specific channel for merchants to hawk their wares (maybe even a galaxy wide chat) and then crack down on the spammers who sit in Coronet, Theed, Bestine etc and spam so much you can't hold a conversation with others.
Another idea would be to setup a bulletin board listing what items are for sale, vendor locations and services that are needed or available. Create a Vendor similar to the Bazaar where spammers can put their messages and people can search for what they want.
The spam causes lag which is not needed as it is in the high traffic areas and is very annoying and kills the Starwarzy feel of the game. I use my /ignore command a lot but sometimes I have actual need of some of their services, but I forget who is offering what and end up /unignore everyone and then have to re-add everyone back to the list when I see the spam I dont want.
Having all these characters in one place who are afk and spamming also adds to the lag by having more people logged in who otherwise wouldnt need to be.
Is there a way of adding someones hawker droid to the /ignore list because I havent found a way of doing it yet, I can ignore the droid owner but that doesnt ignore the droid itself and you cant report the droids owner if they violate the spam rules because there is none of the owners text in the spatial for the /harrasment report to identify when you use the owners name.
I would hope you would look at some of the lawsuits being filed these days to see just how much people hate spam...the UN is considering outlawing certain types of harmful spam, Congress has passed some spam laws and are considering more and several states also have more stringent spam laws because people HATE SPAM!!!!!
Akel
Wed Jul 07, 2004 7:15 am
#296
I think your idea is an excellent one, with a couple comments:
1. The bonuses for having bases are an excellent idea, currently they are just a money pit and there is no incentive to have them.
2. Destroying player houses it probably not a good idea, as cool as it sounds for the simple fact that folks keep vendors and their stuff stored in them worth great amounts of money and rather than take the risk of losing all that in a battle they will likely just not declare a residence in that town to avoid the loss. I agree with the town structures being able to be destroyed. What would probably be a more interesting plan, would be to have city hall the bases and the city structures with terminals in them so you have to occupy them and slice them and they will turn to your faction. If you get city hall then the city will switch factional alliance and all residential buildings of opposing faction would be required to pay massive amounts of taxes while the city is under control of the opposing faction. This would give good incentive to protect the city, but would not cause people to lose valuable inventory items etc.
3. The idea of walls is great, people are going to build them with houses and light poles, exploit or not, so why not put them in the game. The GCW right now is no fun, the best battle grounds are the Static NPC cities. If it could be beefed up where player cities could be defended and awarded etc, then the entire planet would be involved and it would be fun again.
I would like to also propose that rather than having small fenced off battlefields, that perhaps a smaller planet could be created that is a battle field, with large scale outposts on opposing ends. When you load in to the planet, if you are imperial you go to the imperial outpost, if you are rebel you go to the rebel outpost and are auto declared when you land. This would make for less lag I believe and a large playing field for large scale wars. Also allow for the building and destroying of walls, and other structures to beef up the defenses...
Thanks
Akel
Shann0w
Wed Jul 07, 2004 7:46 am
#297
I made this post in the Wanderhome Galaxy forum. I think it's worth reading and exploring. Please take the time to read it and comment on it.
"Discussion of an Economy of a different Scale"
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Wanderhome&message.id=159117
Thank you ,
S'hadow (aka Harbin, aka Greye)
Neige
Wed Jul 07, 2004 7:59 am
#298
HOW TO HOTFIX PVP IN ONE (1) STEP
(pvp need at least a hotfix before the CB)
STEP 1 : Replace doctor secondary stat buffs with vaccin and anti-poison.
See ? it's easy.
Composite gets really heavy. Specials are special again.
Doctor are still usefuf. Combat medics get some opposition.
And nobody gets nerfed.
Cartouche
Wed Jul 07, 2004 8:20 am
#299
Akel Wrote:
I would like to also propose that rather than having small fenced off battlefields, that perhaps a smaller planet could be created that is a battle field, with large scale outposts on opposing ends. When you load in to the planet, if you are imperial you go to the imperial outpost, if you are rebel you go to the rebel outpost and are auto declared when you land.
This is at least the third post in the thread that suggests the creation of a "battlefield planet". Not a criticism. On the contrary, I hope this idea gathers momentum. Apparently, all 3 posters cameup with the same idea independently (look for a post by Titan2000, and a post by myself).
Cartouche