Development Cycle Archive

Guildmotd, no really... need this.

XML based UI (user customizable).

Tooltips that list the /command for whatever option it is, and more command line things. For example I'm sure there's a command to invite people into a guild, but it is not /guildinvite, hovering over the guildinvite option on the guildmanagement window should tell you what it is, that sort of thing everywhere (pet training etc... which needs it added command line).

Changing the launcher from internet explorer, this is what I would call a critical issue that needs to be done as soon as possible, and really it shouldn't have launched like this.

Some sort of program (with no framerate cap) that would allow for benchmarking performance in SWG. I'm not sure this is the sort of thing the devs think about since like me we play lots of other games but I found with EQ and with SWG that it is sometimes the ONLY game people play, so when they want to buy new hardware they want it to be the best for said game and they don't care about anything else. This doesn't necessarily have to actually connect to the game but a rolling demo type thing with the same options control would be really really useful (and likely not all that hard to do).

Better 'rewards' for mastery boxes (and even filling a column). I don't mean actual skills but for example if you master (say) pistoleer, your XP cap for pistols should permenantly change so say 200k, same sort of thing all thew ay through. Merchant you already get to keep vendors, but they should say cost a lot more without the skills.

Storage, overal item space, datapad space. Because of the way itemization is done this is always going to be an issue. Clearly there isn't enough now, (hey if google can give out gigabyte e-mail addresses for free and yahoo 100 mb we can probably get more space). Obviously this is an issue that is constantly under review too, for all sorts of issues.

With the end of the hologrind the game is going to radically change. Granted for the better, but there are going to be some significant content problems with too many 'high level' people. I'm not what exactly the intention is about this but anything that drops good loot already has a really short modal life expectancy and I would count on that getting much worse soon.

In game mail service (not e-mail actual item delivery) might be handy, depending, might be way more effort than its worth too of course.

I presume the shuttle and starports are getting a once over in JTL so I'll gripe about that later.

Some sort of control of e-mail (esspecially related to vendors). I wouldn't mind an e-mail every time something is put up for sale on my vendor, but I'd like to be able to only get say one e-mail per batch when things cascade (and then be able to relist by selecting multiple items at a time).

Just a thought (and really only a thought might be a bad one) but allow architects to experiment say the 'stability' of a miner so that they can be built on more or less awkward terrain, (or optional components or something).

Blue creatures please (I'm a be I want more colours in pet options, no one should be shocked by this).

Another thought for consideration.

Armor. It's not all the same. The most difficult "reality" problem I feel with the game is that armor is armor is armor. But there are truly two types of armor. Body Armor and Structure Armor (for lack of a better term).

Body armor is obvious. It's the wide variety of armor that is worn by the players or encasing creature. It performs fairly logically and doesn't seem crazy to believe that a guy swinging a sword or a hammer or shooting a rifle at me wearing armor will cause me grave harm. So no changes here.

Structure armor is the heavy armor plating on a turret, or an AT-ST, or even on a ship in JTL. This is where "reality" goes haywire. I'm supposed to believe that a guy running up to a tank and hitting it with a hammer will do much more than make a dent ---- eventually? In game, a hammer DEVASTATES a structure armored item. And don't even get me started with a guy swinging a sword at a turret! The only thing a projectile weapon would do to structural armor is make a very cool ricochet sound. And a beam weapon needs to hit the same spot a lot to make a hole.

Consider recognizing this distinction in types of armor. Structure armor should be impervious (or darn near so) to attacks not based on heavy weapons or blast damage, which will maybe give the Commandos a meaningful purpose with their Rocket Launchers, Beam Weapons, Grenades and the often rumored shaped charges and mines that might be in the Combat Balance. And maybe there is a great argument for some damage from electricity, but I really think the SWG universe would have discovered the ground wire.

Coding wouldn't be too difficult. All it would take is setting resists to 99.9%, or putting in a validation that the player is using a heavy weapon. Otherwise, the hardest part would be the audio of the troopers manning the turrets laughing hysterically at the swordsman and snipers! (no offense intended to any professions).

Everything else would stay the same, with the combat classes continuing to wreak havoc with body armored people and creatures. But try to add some sense to the Structure side of logic. If you do, all the jokes and arguments about dropping turrets will be a thing of the past.

RIEN
Master Commando/ Master Pistoleer
Corbantis

---

BRP1 wrote:

Ok, I'd like to post a whole bunch of ideas for the future Galactic Civil War patch.

I will appologize in advance if this is not the correct place to post this, and also if I post too much but I have a lot to say on this subject.

First, to make the galactic civil war more interesting, cities should be able to declare (as a whole city!) for imperial or rebel... The city government decided to throw in their support for one side or the other. To do this correctly there should be several other things that need to be added to the game.

Cities areNOT required to declare, but it is an option that has both benefits and penalties associated with it.

Forts as they relate to the city.

BENEFITS

1): imperial and rebel forts should be able to be donated to a city. the mayor can then place them, and they will not take anyones individual lots.

2) Since these are owned by the 'city', there are no troops, vehicles etc attached to the fort. All troops for the fort have to be donated to the fort by the citizens of the city. When the cap for units in the fort have been reached (say 40? units) then another fort could be placed by the city. Troops would respawn after a designated (relatively long) period of time.

3) For each fort placed by the city, that city would get a set amount of cash from their affiliated government for city maintanence etc. (for example just say 50k per week per fort).So instead of costing players lots and maintenance, the city would get a reward for having them. This way when a city has 5 forts or soin the city, the city maintenance would be approximately free.

4) Militia members of the city would get a bonus payout in cash from the empire for everyenemy they killed within the city limits.

5) ONLY members of the same faction (rebel or imperial) can use any of the facilities in the city. If a member of the opposing faction dies (whether overt or COVERT!), they are not able to clone inside the city!. Also, they are not allowed to go into the city limits (by the game not person banning them) for a certain time period (this avoids the loner attacking over and over and over, cloning at nearby facility and constant harrassment).

6) Any trooper, at-st etc killed by an enemy within the city limits would give you double the faction you normally receive.

PENALTIES (for city residents)

1) Allmembers of the city (with declared residences) are automatically overt when they enter their city, and remain overt for the 1 hour time period after they leave the city. All city structures including residence houses could be theorectically destroyed so they need to be conscious of defending the city (see below).

CITY MODIFICATIONS

1) Cities should be able to build walls, at least 3 different types. The low level walls are simple barriers, mid level walls allow the troops from the fort and the players to 'man' the wall by walking around on them (and giving a bonus slight bonus to ranged attack and a bonus to ranged defence when on them. Melee attacks made against people on walls wouldnt be able to work becauseof'distance' to hit the target. The high level walls should do same as mid level, with the addition of allowing a small turret to be placed at every segment (say 20 m). There should also be 'towers' that can be placed where you can put large turrets into them. This will afford the city with greater protection which it will need (for below reasons).

2) All buildings including the forts (except city hall) can be targeted and destroyed by enemy troops No more putting in codes etc for the forts. they can be directly targeted much like a mission and destroyed. This includes the forts, the towers, the city walls, the shuttleport, and personal houses inside the city. All of these should NOT be easy or quick to be destroyed, but they can all be destroyed by shooting at them, hitting them etc (not the current slice terminal etc method).

3) The cloning facility, vendors, shuttleport, cantina etc areONLY available for use by members of the same faction (overt or covert). This avoids rebels using shuttleport or cloning to pop up directly in middle of your city.

4) All physical structures (buildings etc) should have a very high 'Health' bar, with pretty high resistances. This means that taking out a building would take a long long time for a single individual to do, or would require organized groups to accomplish. Putting money into maintenance for a personal structure will be used to replenish the health bar, but only 1x every 24 hours.

BENEFITS (for attacking parties)

1) Double faction points for every soldier etc you kill.

2) Lots of faction points for every wall or city building etc that you destroy!

3) The opportunity to truly wreak complete havoc on a city.

BENEFITS (for defenders)

1) Fortifications will slow enemy parties down before they can get into the city.

2) Since fortifications cant be run through, enemy will have choice of running a gauntlet at the city entrances, or blasting they way through a wall etc.

3) Faction points given for all the kills they make from people raiding city.

4) Free city maintenance if they have enough of a faction presence in the city. This could even be carried over to all individual houses etc getting maintenance paid for by city if faction presence is high enough.

5) Cash rewards for militia defenders who kill enemy PC fighters.

BENEFITS (To game balance and game content)

1) Enables cities to go all out for rebels or imperials

2) Encourages PVP on large scale

3) Encourages group combat and group activities (thus helping encourage more players).

4) Gives forts, troops, at-st's, and faction points in general a more practical and beneficial use.

5) Would strongly! make the war personal and affecting everyone (or potentially loosing your home etc).

6) Would Balance the Melee and Ranged fighting Professions. (explained below)

a) Encourage PVP using different skills besides the fencer tkm combo that is common.

b) make commandos, and riflemen much more useful

c) alter combat medic so they are best using stimpacks and poison/disease but not good at all using wound packs, Docs are buffers and very good at wound packs but not good at all at stimpacks.

d) Ranged fighters would have significant advantage when fighting against city walls, and when a wall etc is breached then the melee professions would cause tremendous dmg up close.

Thunderheart, I would love to hear some comments from you on this concept, if itwould bepossible to do in game etc. Also, if anyone else has comments to make on this subject I'd like to see them.

Valoris of Tarquinis server...

---

Ah, I love it Anything that adds to 'real' Rebel vs Imperial battles, reasons to attack/defend bases, real rewards for participating in the war.

One thing I *really really* want to see is Imperials fighting in cool imperial looking armor. I'd love to see something alone the lines of decent protection, low decay faction armor that would be desirable to use while Overt. Even if it was limited by rank, made hard to achieve via faction quests, or some rare ingredients required and conditions to use- this would help a lot to the immersion of the game.

RIS is 'interesting' but more of a collectors item right now then actually useful. Mandalorian appears 'interesting' but the protections seem to have problems as well. There really is no choice but to wear the 'robot-o' composite armor in any PvP, which results in both Rebels and Imperials fighting each other- and looking exactly like each other. I think the absolute coolest and funnest PvP I've ever been in, had Imp as Stormtroopers, attacking a mixed 'rebel rabble' before composite was around.

Armor is to be revamped, I'd love to see armor change drastically.

One idea is to make layers play more of a factor in armor. Reduce armor bases a LOT, but put more layers in - and each layer only protects on state. For example, composite would start as 15% Kinetic protection only, and you would need to add elec, heat, acid, stun layers each at 25% a layer. Even better- there is a unique layer 'slot' for each type of damage resist, so it's controllable. And armorsmiths could specialize in what layer they are 'great' at. Each layer would be experimented on, and cap at a reasonable level. The 'uber advanced' new composite would be extremely difficult to make with decent protections for all types. Make it so some armors have a higher cap then others in certain resists. For example- composite 50% cap but has a layer for every type. Ubese has layers for Kinetic , Heat, Acid and can go to 75% - but would be vulnerable to stun and cold.

Stormtrooper armor could be decent in all but cold and elec.

Those composite robots running around everywhere just don't do much for me immersion wise.

Ren

---

GrafBenDa wrote:

Rainbows on Dantooine, Naboo and Corellia after rainstorms

Cool planetary effects like actual bubbling tar pits on Dathomir...stuff like that

More Star Wars music

---

Message Edited by Squidwalker on 06-28-2004 05:05 PM