Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Great Expectations, Major Schedule Changes and making SWG the finest MMORPG ever
Thorolfsk wrote:
Thunderheart can you please respond to these questions:
- Can the development team please provide the community with a valid reason for pushing back the combat revamp?
- I understand that there are many people against having Jedi in the game, but it is part of the game. En masse, the community was adamant that we change the holocron/professions system and that time is now. Given the effort that went in to publish 9, we needed to clear the schedule and make room for publish 10 to do a better job on it. The Jedi system needed to be changed because it was effecting everyone. That is why it had the shceudling priority that it has.
- The Combat Balance is a huge publish and will have as much code in it as a console game. Its huge. We need the expertise and the manpower to do it correctly.
With all due respect, why release a expansion pack before fixing problems already existing within the game?
Assuming theexpansion will have a few problems, wouldn't that just create alarger backlog for you guys, and take time away from other problems?
Those integration problems are being accounted for and that's why we needed more scheduling time. Publish 10 and taking the extra time to make integration with the ground game smoother is the time from the schedule that was needed. All in all, they were very difficult decisions to make.
garvin wrote:
Just and FYI...this may not mean a lot, but it does to me...
Ever since we Correspondents heard about the Delay, TH has gone out of his way to get as much details from us about what SOE can do from now until the CB launches to help our communities...He has been seriously energized and focused on collecting our issues and I'm confident that, even though the CB is delayed, we will see many good things coming soon, especially around Publish 11...
TH knew before posting this that it wouldn't be very popular...but I believe him when he says that, in the long run, it will be a good thing they made this move...
If Yoda can have patience turning Luke into a Jedi (pretty much ended his life it did)...I think we can have patience with the Devs making this game be everything it can and will be...
Thunderheart wrote:
It is in the sametime frame and once we ship JTL and re-assemble theteam, we'll put together a more concrete answer, though it will be during this time.
This is very disappointing. Everyone seems to slam on Jedi, because of all the noise and focus of late, but few fail to realize that Droid Engineers got 2 months of "revamp" (which they didn't seem to enjoy" and Image Designers got a month. (why? Is this "Sims in Space"?)
Combat Balance has been promised since last year and has been pushed and pushed and pushed farther out. To be blunt, why should we believe that we're going to see it after JTLS is Live? It's like the proverbial carrot that'sdangled in front of the donkey, to get it to plod on down the road. There comes a point where enough is enough, and the customers have had enough.
JTLS... we don't need it, don't want it. We are paying to play a MMORPG, not a Space Twitcher. Yes, it will be a nice and welcome Expansion, but only AFTER the MMORPG portion is playable. That means that JTLS should come AFTER Combat Balance and GCW Revamp, not before. JTLS is not going to save subscription bleeding, people are quitting because the Combat and PVP is the worst of any MMORPG out.
If you think that Jedi are getting the brunt of people's anger right now, just wait until you are done with Jedi and JTLS is about to come out. JTLS is going to get the blame full on for having taken away the focus of the Dev and Design team, leaving us with having to pay for a broken game for another year, while LA and SOE skips along thinking that yet another pretty, but unwanted, expansion will save the game.
First time it was Vehicles, Mounts and Player Cities. Now it's JTLS. When is the focus going to be on making the CURRENT game acceptable to the community, instead of putting manpower, time and money into an Expansion that a majority of the community would rather see postponed BEFORE promised fixes to the current game system.
Why is it that Thunderheart knew and expected exactly this response (based on his comments about sleepless nights anticipating this post), yet the rest of the "Team" at SOE/LA apparantly did not, or just ignored it? That bothers me in more than one way, because apparantly they are either clueless about what the paying community wants from their game, or they just do not care... or both.
This is very disappointing.
Thunderheart wrote:
Check out this cloud of smoke! Doesn't it make this mirror shiny and pretty?
Message Edited by Serenius on 07-15-2004 02:54 PM
nolan007 wrote:
What can be expected from the combat revamp? What should be our expectations?
Only a few defense numbers changed? Everything changed ?
I'm hoping that JTL is beyond fun.... that it doesn't havea gameplay stoppersuch aswhat Combat Medics / Defense Stackers / Uber loot Mind weapons / Combat Imbalances have done to SWG (issues that destroy the fun factor).
Amen!
MandalorianArmr wrote:
i saw we boycott JTL until they fix the core game first
who's with me?
Message Edited by MandalorianArmr on 07-15-2004 02:47 PM
This game hasnt changed one bit since I cancelled my account for two months.
When a game gets boring with no sign of improvement, I leave, so long everyone
