Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Publish 7 Feedback: Junk Dealer Revamp
bwjedi wrote:
I went around town and the junk dealers were very easy to find and it seems all the major towns have a dealer to buy each type of good so, despite what some people are saying, a new player will certainly not have to travel by shuttle to find the right dealer, but simply bring up the overhead map and visit them till they find the right one. I can't say for smaller towns, but It seems that all the starting towns have all the dealers. So, I'd say good job!
Secondly, I visited the jawa traders (being a master smuggler right now) and I'd really have to say good job with this one! I love how you implemented the language comprehension part of it. Really cool! Also, I noticed that the jawas seemed to offer me about twice as much for my items as the standard junk dealers did. Nice little perk if you ask me.
So, to sum it up, I think you guys did a good job with this one. Keep up the good work!
I think though that you have to remember that the purpose of selling junk is to make money. So... you spend X amount of time running around trying to find the right dealer, when you could spend the same amount of time waiting for a shuttle to do a delivery mission.
Now you have to understand that 90% of the newbies I've seen don't even want to do the delivery missions, they just want you to hand them credits. So all these vaunted newbies that are going to be using this system are still going to be hanging around the starports begging for money.
So...
I think the real issue here is thatthey spent time'improving' something thatwill beused by a tiny minority of the playerbase, whereas they could have put more effort into other elements of the gameworld that would be a lot more usefil to 99% of the players.
Lets assume for a second that the person/persons working on the Junk dealers can't do anything with combat code or with the bazaar or armor or anything else.There are still tons of little fixes needed all over the place with character conversations and really basic waypoint names that show up as droid_cave, etc.If you've got nothing better for the work experience kids to do, put them to work fixing typos.
JamesHighwest wrote:
How's this for a suggestion:
Let's say players can get a "quest" from a junk dealer. This quest can involve flat out listing what he wants or giving obvious hints for pieces of junk that he wants. Players collect these pieces and bring them back to the dealer. The dealer then tinkers with these pieces and hands the player back a weapon enhancement part that is useable in a weapon the player likes. Nothing on the level of a krayt tissue, of course, but something that is nice.
This makes junk dealers more valueable, gives them some RP credibility and in no way causes an imbalance with their rewards.
Now here's a perfectly good idea that went unnoticed, and I think it could be a cool alternative to those boring mission terminals. Its certainly more within the lines of the star wars continuity. If nothing else,upgradethe dealers to increase the payout (should be fairly easy).
I say we make the best of the situation and try to be constructive. They've already patched in the Junk Dealer revamp, useless or not,so complaining about it now isn't going to accomplish anything.
Suggestions...
1) Junk dealer quests as mentioned above. Gather the correct components, turn them in, get something in return.
2) Have them sell junked versions of crafter components. Would be an additional money sink and would help out crafters that need a part quickly but don't really care if it's the best. Make certain the parts are sufficiently "junked" so as to not interfere with players who create and sell quality components.
3) Let players buy junk that has been sold to the dealers. Interior decorators love to use junk in their creations. And with the fix for vertical item movement in homes, demand for decorative items will likely rise. Although that probably defeats the hidden motive behind the junk dealers... to get junk items out of the database.
Other than those, they really don't add anything to the game and were a poor item to allocate developer manhours to. The first time a new player goes to sell his junk, he's going to realize that doing a single hunt mission for 500cr is better than sellingthe extremely oddcdef carbine or broken macrobinoculars for 40cr each. Unless you deal in bulk junk, the cost to go to the junk dealer (shuttle/transport ticket, spent vehicledecay,foot running time)is higher than the junk payout. Particularly in the case of the jawas.
Trayson_Antilles wrote:
I'll bet you a million credits that this wasn't a priority and was given to a dev as a 'side job'. See, hehad a 'major job' to do, but given that you can only work on something for a certain length of time before you start getting burnout, this 'side job' was there to allow him a bit of a break. I'm also willing to bet that it didn't take much overall to make this change, hence it was a small, yet large, addition to the game that, while not readily received by most players, is a step in the right direction for adding more content to the game.
Has anyone tried selling for example the odd things from the geonosian lab? Maybe junk dealers will pay a little more for that?
Man, I was hopin that I could actually trade with Jawas. You know, I give them a droid and they give me something cool, like a schematic, a modified weapon, clothing, furniture, maybesomething shiny... 
I was just hoping for something more from this update, 
though I do agree with Trayson.
Thunderheart,I would really like to help you guys on the feedback, but so far i still think im missing the point on thejunk dealerrevamp. IN ORDER FOR US TO HELP YOU, i guess it would be good if u explain alittle better what were u guys trying to acomplish with the said revamp.
So far, i see that still the junk dealers pay TOO LESS for all the trouble involved on finding them. Its still better to destroy the item that to go a find for the RIGHT dealer, and ieven if u find it, its better to use the time u investedon going to him and making him pay you 100 credson completing a mission for 600 credits, that will give u more credits credits as well as xp, and istakes the same time to do than to find the delaer.
I disagree on the harsh tone of most of the posts on this thread, i think that you guys tried to do a good thing here and people should start looking for the positive side. But I'm really trying hard to look for a positive thing and I still cant see whySOE spent dev time and resources on just some new dialogues and new specializations on the dealers.
I GUESS THET THERE IS MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE on the revamp, but if so, its really hard to see it.
PLEASE HELP US HELP YOU. WHAT WERE YOUR OBJECTIVE FOR THIS REVAMP? WHAT BENEFITS U INTENDEDTO BRING TO PLAYERS?. IS THERE SOME ASPECT OF THE REVAMP WE'RE NOT SEEING?. HELP US SEE IT SO WE CAN GIVE U FEEDBACK.
my tests.