Development Cycle Archive

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SWG-Runesabre wrote:

Publish 8.1 brings us the Image Designer profession enhancements

Stat Migration: Image Designers now have the sole ability to migrate player stats. The process will take 10 minutes and requires the Image Modification Booth located inside the ID tents. This functionality has been revoked from the general player base and now requires an Image Designer.

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Give us your feedback on the listed changes for mini-publish 8.1!

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Dear Runesabre,

Please never touch my profession. No, I'm serious. Its painfully obvious that your ability to design fun games is truely lacking. You know what your problem is? You focus on trying to fulfill design goals that where flawed to begin with, and end up implimenting a few cool features while creating a system behind that which players find frusterating and a waste of time.

Honestly, can't you come up with something better than making players sit and wait for 5-10 minutes to wait for an ID to be allowed to modifying you? Sure, I realize you're going for an "accomplishment" and makingplayers work hard, but time sinks are a rediculous way to do that. You can do better.

This is the biggest reason I am afraid of the GCW update. I know you're the one designing it and it makes me worry. Finding five professions to eliminate bases is already hard enough; I am expecting nothing less than you breaking it even more by requiring every profession to get anything done. Sure, its a great ideal and you're full of those...too bad in reality trying to attain that ideal will lead to nothing short of failure because quite simply, this game is not as connected as you would ever like it to be. You need to get more realistic and start thinking about the fun factor in this game. Keeping the 10 minutes on the starport and these image designer waits tells me you don't know anything about what the players really want.

And yes, I am bitter that my friends have left this game because you have too big of an ego to admit you are wrong and continue to degrade this game more and more with your ill-planned solutions.

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FlyingElmo wrote:

Dear Runesabre,

Please never touch my profession. No, I'm serious. Its painfully obvious that your ability to design fun games is truely lacking. You know what your problem is? You focus on trying to fulfill design goals that where flawed to begin with, and end up implimenting a few cool features while creating a system behind that which players find frusterating and a waste of time.

<snip>

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Yes, I second that. I have no desire to log on and find Architect's the sole class responsible for deeding structures. Could you image moving a harvestor farm from Endor to Lok for someone.

Nobody has said anything good about the Stat migration change.
THAT WAS A BAD DECISION.

PLEASE LET SOMEONE ELSE MAKE THE SPACE EXPANSION

"The timer for ID session, coupled with the new UI and xp changes seems to be overkill"

This is more than overkill.

Have you calculated how much time people would have to spend to get ID mastered?

I believe developers have. No for a new ID it would take monthes and not only for him.

He would need victim.

Don't tell me this done to prevent grinding.

With a new publish it would go away anyway. And Istopped grindingat least 2 monthes ago.

But I feel really sorry for people who wanted to become Jedi before this publish and have not grind ID yet.

If developers really wanted to improve ID they should add NEW features but not REMOVE old.

If the idea of giving stat migration only to IDs is to bring people together it's failed drastically in my case. I will not group with an ID until this is revoked. I will encourage all crafter friends of mine to refuse to sell to IDs. I will do anything in my power to make IDs' lives miserable. I will do this because you obviously don't listen to the feedback from the 95% of the player base that aren't IDs, so maybe if at some point the IDs are asking to change this you'll finally realize it was a stupid idea.

Oh, and also a friend was going to come back to the game, then I told him about this. "That was one of the coolest things about the game", was his reply. "It let you customize your character and change if you wanted to." There's one source of income you've lost already, I'm sure there will be more.

First, on the plus side:

1. The new interface makes actually DOING an image design on a customer easier.

Obvious problems I see:

1. You have to actually MAKE a change to get any xp when trying to become an Image Designer. Previously, you could "change" something to what it was in the first place and still get xp. This made it easier to find a willing victim to practice on. That said, why not give ID a "practice" option similar to that crafters get?


2. Xp gain is too small for the time spent making each change.


3. I totally agree with the HUGE number of posts that want the general player base to have the stat migration capability.


4. Looking at the Skill Sheet for Image Designer does not tell you when you will be able to do Stat Migration or Holo-Emotes.


5. The timer is overkill with the changes to the interface. Having a timer for stat migration is fine, but not for any of the other changes. I also agree with the poster who said that this timer should be for the client ONLY, not for the image designer.


6. Player booths that can be placed in private houses, Droid modules and/or Player ID Tents are a MUST with this change. Where are they? They should have been included in the mini-publish.

I'm sure that as I learn more about the changes, that I will find more problems.

As a side note: Zabraks hair and horns should be able to be styled SEPERATELY. I have a Zabrak on Tempest and there is a Zabrak hair style I would love her to have, but it does not come with the horn pattern I prefer.

...and to the poster who complained that ID does not require resources... Crafting requires less xp to master than ID does. That is the trade off for having to use resources.

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Albatross76 wrote:
If the idea of giving stat migration only to IDs is to bring people together it's failed drastically in my case. I will not group with an ID until this is revoked. I will encourage all crafter friends of mine to refuse to sell to IDs. I will do anything in my power to make IDs' lives miserable. I will do this because you obviously don't listen to the feedback from the 95% of the player base that aren't IDs, so maybe if at some point the IDs are asking to change this you'll finally realize it was a stupid idea.

Oh, and also a friend was going to come back to the game, then I told him about this. "That was one of the coolest things about the game", was his reply. "It let you customize your character and change if you wanted to." There's one source of income you've lost already, I'm sure there will be more.

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How nice of you, huring the IDs because of decisions the DEVs have made. Sheesh...

From what i have done last night overall the ID pub was good the interface was perfect however the palettes could do with been bigger. All the new colours worked well but i had complaints about there been no new tattoes, hair or facial hair.

What i didn't like was the Holoemotes, there too much of a gimmick and didnt last that long. The need for a tent needs to be looked at, seriously there is enough to go around. I do most of my work at starports as i am travelling from one place to another, the use of a droid module is needed. The module does not need to reduce the timer just give use the useablillity of the tents.

On too customers

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Rogue1970 wrote:

ID communication is severely gimped by forcing the group requirement for ID makeovers. I stood in a tent with 8 IDs yesterday feeling ignored because they were all in groups. They were not watching spatial as they were all in the group tab and busy - which I understand them being busy. But, since they are obviously going to have lines now and at times in the future when this calms down - there needs to be a way for them to see and acknowledge waiting players. You need a way for them to 'form a line' like Docs do with bank tips for buffs. Removing the group requirement (which makes little sense) would greatly improve communication and not make waiting customers feel ignored by the IDs.

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Yes in Corent i had lines, i work in the group chat window so i dont get lost in the spam. with that i was getting tells from all over. Most people was ok and joined the line i was joining them in a group then finding out what they wanted. Every so often i would give back feedback to when i will be finished. Even had one guy leave the que and i told him via tell's when i was ready for him while i did a stat migration.

So Please bear with us, after a while it will get better.

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S_Thark wrote:

Crosspost from the ID forum from yesterday, I still will stick to what I wrote back then:

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Kwee wrote:

2/ Cosmetic/Body Timers
Both Image Designers and customers feel that the current timers for cosmetic and body changes, 2 and 5 minutes, are unbearably long.

a) Why were such long timers chosen?
b) Are timer reductions being considered?

7/ Exp Gain Too Slow
The ID community is very concerned about the current rate of gaining exp. At the very bare bones minimum it would currently take someone roughly 60 hours to master, and that’s under ideal conditions (willing friend to click at perfect intervals for at least 60 hours). Those of us who are casual players and did not make use of mind-altering substances or buffs under the old system know from experience that the ID exp grind is a mind-numbingly-boring carpal-tunnel’s-inducing nightmare. We wanted our profession’s exp gain to be non-trivial, but not torturous. 60 hours or more might be reasonable if the process of getting the exp were fun, but sadly it is not.

a) What is considered a minimum amount of hours a profession should take a casual player to master?
b) How many hours a week is a casual player assumed to play?
c) Is the exp system under consideration for major tweaking?

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To finally come to a conclusion: You made some very nice improvements on the ID profession, but you made the profession very hard and unattractive to achieve. It is uncomprehensible to me, why you try to make one of the rare social professions so much harder to achieve then the very common combat classes.

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Wow. Nuts.

From a holo-whore who did every profession but politician, 60hrs to complete a profession is nuts, unless you plan to do the same with the rest of them.

Time to complete professions (actual gameplay hours):

Armorsmith: 6hrs

Weaponsmith: 5hrs

DE: 7hrs

Tailor 8hrs

Ranger: 10hrs

Architect: 1-2hrs

Doctor: 8hrs

Combat Medic:4hrs (buffing)

Any *pure* combat profession: under 24hrs

etc, etc...

The ONLY professions that *might* still take longer than ID, would be Bounty Hunter and Merchant. Back before it was changed, it took me probably 250ish hours of gameplay to master BH. Once it was changed, people were doing it in 40-80hrs. So it's a toss up now, as to which profession is the most painful to master.

Considering that you are trying to beef up the profession to make it more desirable for people to play, you may want to reconsider how long it will take someone starting from scratch to master it. Should it be mastered in an hour? Of course not. Should it take longer than every other profession but Bounty Hunter to master? Of course not.

In my opinion, Image Design is probably one of the classes that *could* appeal to the casual gamers. You know, the ones that may play 5hrs a week, if that. This will effectively cut them out, leaving us...well, without many Image Designers still.

SOE screwed up with the holocron grinding. Powergamers showed you how easy some classes, like ID, were to master. Do not punish the players who wish to actually play the class by making them take 60 hours of casual gameplay in order to do what they desire. Fix the issue of making those of us who aren't interested in being Image Designers bulldozing over professions such as these and trivializing every aspect of them. You created the problem...remove the desire to bulldoze over your professions, and the rest becomes moot. Obviously things will change in publish 10 in regards to holo-grinding, but this...change...will not be good for the Image Designer profession in the long run.