Development Cycle Archive

To correct Tiger's post above:

-first level will give +2 (not +1)to creature lvl and fourth will give +5 (not +4)

Also, <font size=4>WHAT IS THE WOOKIEE BONUS GOOD FOR NOW?</font>

Whoo Hoo

Man its nice to know thatthe creative thought processes on the parts of the CH can, and does make a difference.

I was about at mybreaking point with this game, but now I am again looking forward to playing.

Thanks Guys. for listening, respondingand making changes based on our responses.

Also thanks for the clarifications. What you said on rare pets is enough for me. I don't need to know what they arejust that I have thecontrol points for them and the ability to pullthem.

Scouring the planets for level 50-60 pets will be awesome, it brings the fun back into the game.

I still don't like the aggro bit attacking me but thats more cuz I like to sit back and heal and watch my pets pound. I undertand this as balance in the game though. I can see this as balance.This looksfair if not overwhelmingly instituted. (aggors attack handler 1 out of 20 times I can live with 1 out of 3 thats kinda overwhelming.)

All and all this looks fair, It gives the novices a chance to grow and get some useful pets though I think 15 points for novice seems a bit more fair. (Is giving a cowardly gurreck to a novice really bad)? Itlets dabbler still enjoy pet usage just not quite as easily as before,and it rewards you for becoming a master. From my perspective I see positive changes here not just another quick power nerf.

Please, Please maintain this thought process for everyone you lookat making changes to. This post showedthe significantquality of how to make the game better and more enjoyable. It didn't have that same feel of well sorry we have to knock something else just to stop the whinerskinda feel to it.

Please for everyone try to make the content more enjoyable, and listen to them as you have done to us.

Becuase, when you know your input counts and can make a difference it really makes you feel like part of the game.

Congrats TH for this much better and thought out update........... MCH KETTEMOOR

Thunderheart,

Since the level cap is staying at level seventy, will the bio-engineered Kimogilas ever be fixed, or will they stay eternally bugged? I've no problem keeping mine in my inventory justto gawk at, but I'm very curious about this question.

Also, on the subject of mounts, will the equine monsters (gualama, khrabu, etc) ever be mountable? I have hope for this even if it will never happen. I'm quite the horse person both on and off SWG.

Thank you.

Hey I agree - I'd rather see pets out of the game entirely. It's rare to see *anyone* not dragging a pet or three around on any server. It's silly, and very unstarwarsy to say the least.

However, since players can't take a punch in the current model of the combatsystem (with the exception of TKs and maybe a few of the melee professions), a lot of folks rely on their pet to tank things while they kill it - be they CH or nonCH. A lot of non-combatants like entertainers and crafters rely on them to travel overland and make harvester runs.

If they changed the system sofolks could work solo missions without a pet *like they are supposed to be able to*, great - I'd be happy to see the last of pets - CH and nonCH alike.

My beef is that what they are doing is taking something away ()cl15 nonCH pets) which enablesnonCH playersto play and enjoy the game by tackling creatures their own level at the upper ends of the skill trees. Without a pet I'll have to be careful what missions I choose as Master Carbineer.

I think the problem comes from the low end - where novice marksmen with no skill boxes filled use a nonCH pet to take missions 8 levels above them for rapid advancement. I agree this is *wrong*.

This nerf clearly dates back to the day the devs decided to make grouped pet level mean something when grouping with your pet. They did this for the CHs who could not get the proper level missions, and it was a good change. For the nonCH, it threw the game out of whack because suddenly folks who shoudl be getting level 1 missions could get level 8 missions right off the bat by grouping their pet. So now because of a change made to help CHes, nonCHes get screwed and the CHes clap with glee. Nice.

Later on though, grouping your pet while generating missions with a nonCH pet is a very bad idea - instead of cl25 I get offered cl19 missions. Especially fun is to group the r2 unit and get cl12 missions offered to me.

So what will the outcome of dropping nonCH pets to CL10 be? Folks who should be getting cl1 missions will still group their pets and get cl6 or7 for rapid advancement, and those of us at CL25 level will be right out of luck, as I don't think any cl10 pet even with doctor buffs will stand a snowball's chance of tanking anything at my level.

So I agree - I really wish there weren't pets at all - I think they cheapen the game and keep the developers from actually fixing their combat system. But, if I can't run missions anymore with a character that took me months to build because I get creamed by missions given to me to be soloed, I'll be pretty annoyed at losing my pet.

This is still stupid, a person who spends less skill points by going up the 2 trees (taming and training) then the person who spreads out their CH skills (like me, 2/2/1/2) are still going to be A LOT more powerful, thanks for wasting my time Thunderheart, so by going to management 2 instead of taming or training 3 I screwed myself out of 6 skill points and almost 70k XP by thinking I'd get to use 2 pets to help get XP faster (when I got to management 3), well out the window that goes doesn't it.....thanks for completely changing an ENTIRE proffession 4+ months after launch.... Thunderheart's mission: Destroy all fun involved in the game, Force grouping even when the population of the game is dwindling (good luck finding a group on Rori/Talus/Endor/Lok, it's not going to happen).

I must say that these tweaks have restored my faith in this change. At first I thought that only allowing a master CH to pull 2 pets was going to totally unbalance the game towards MCH. The qualification that other professions will be able to pull more things helps. In addition to the factional rank granting that kind of ability.

Also, I’m excited about the quote that probots may actually be useful again soon.

One of the reasons everyone is using pets is that a CL 15 pet can wipe the floor with a probot. This change will make driods attractive again.

How can a rifleman survive without a pet. You killed the Rifleman profession as well as others now everyone will have to be ch's for only pets can tank mobs. I fire at mob and the teleport on top of me with their 2.5 dmg. a Level 10 pet will die too fast.

How will those who are dedicated businessmen instead of combatment survive doing a harvest run?

Maybe I should just give up on playing any MMorpg.

RIfleman here also. And theres no way i can complete missions on my level. Without my lvl 15 pet. its just not possible. Either leave it as it is or make the rifleman profession better. I die enough times as it is with my pet. I don't need to start dying twice as much. Anything that takes longer than 5 hits to kill will kill me, thats adding in long range and concealing. Once it gets close enough to me it only takes a few hits to kill me, even a creature that is white to me. And forget anything social. I really need my pet. Please leave it at 15.

Though this thread is just chock full of stuff, and I did not have time to read it all (other than the main post), I wanted to say the following:

First, thanks for hearing everyone and making the changes to the CH change proposal. I am most appreciative of keeping the 3 pets out as well as the balancing. Very clever way of letting people have 3rd pet and keeping the xp curve where you want it.

My only other small complaint is that the benefits of the Master CH box are still slightly too favorable. You have taken almost thethree of the "best" CH functions and put them in the master box: /transfer, 3rd Pet, and ranged attack command. Most other elite's don't nearly have such great benefits at Master.

My concern is really with the /transfer command. I feel it shoudl be a lvl 4 command in one of thecolumns (probably the leastpopularone)and not master. The current proposallimits pet selling only to Master's which is not fair to non-Master CH's. If non-CH pet use was still lvl15,one could probably survive and have fun, as that would allow some mount sales and somedecent non-mount petsales to non-CH players from non-Master CH's (hope you followed that).

But now, pet sales of by non-Master CH's are limited the the few (1 or 2 if I recall) mounts at lvl 10 or under and non-combat helpful pets. Effectively you are lowering demand for pet sales and decreasing the number of players allowd to supply pets. This takesalotof the fun out of working your way up the CH skill set (which for me is being able to tame and sell some pets to people during the quest for master CH).

But other than that...game on!

PS..I can't seem to find where the "train mount" command will be in the latest skill tree at the top of the thread? Is that still in empathy 4?

Sheesh, boys, boys, relax. Firstly you are wrong, not EVERY NonCH has a pet, I don't nor do I intend to for the near future. And all this talk of nerfing this and nerfing that... do you guys ever take a break and think?

To be honest, am actually getting a bit fed up of seeing nearly everyone running around with pets, it's not that I can't afford one, it's because well... did you see Han, Luke, Leia or anyone else for that matter running around with pets... nope. They ran around on their own or with other people.

I personally think the CH class should'nt have been made, nor the ability to have nonCH pets, for two simpel reasons, one is because I find it funny when a player is boasting about how he 'Solo'ed something with his pets...

*watches as tumbleweed blows by and gets dictionary out*

Solo - equals alone, on your own, not with ANYONE or ANYTHING else...

So those of you who say this, you DIDN'T solo said creature, you did it with your pets aiding you as punchbags whilst you took shots from afar.

The other reason I say this is because am sick of seeing Pets in buildings, specially ones that are WAY too big to be in them... ie Rancors, Maulers... If any of the bigger creatures was in a Cantina, it would be either because there is a biiiig door (which there isn't in any of the Cantinas I've been in) or because half of the Cantina wall just got decimated to rubble when said creature punched or stomped through it. Let's have a tiny bit of realism back please folks.

It's funny. For the guys who say that for the difficulty level of missions they are forced to play with because of profession or whatnot that they aren't proposing the more obvious solution for it... like, I dunno, making mission difficulty more appropriate for the players.

you guys suck you should not even touch ch because your game is boring as it is now this will frusturat people and piss people off. Good job sony you put your selft out of biz. how about you stop nerf nerf nerf nerf and fix the bugs that run all over the place. it is funny how fast you can nurf but how long it takes to fix a bug. i dont mind the ch changes to much but changing on the faction pets that will make pvp suck even more than it does now. DAOC had a way better set up. you actully had to work for something like DF and relics. you have nothing except that lame -30% to all fp come on. you need to think up more ways in pvp.