Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Weekly Roundtable Discussion (Week Ending 3-29-04)
wickedHangover
Mon Mar 22, 2004 11:17 am
#27
On the issue of mission terminals, I think we need a higher cap on the mission levels we are allowed to take. In the past I've had to routinely group with others to get rancor missions that I can solo. But by myself the best I can pull by myself on a terminal is a baz nitch mission.
My opinion is that the missions should have tabs to select the difficulty of the missions you want to take. That way if I want to take level 50 missions I can, if I want to take level 80 I can. What's the difference if I get the mission by myself or by a group? Obviously if its too hard I'm going to die anyway.
I agree with Lok having virtually no spawns, what's the deal with that? I went to Lok in October and it was a frenzy of beasts everywhere. I could barely walk 200m north of the star port and was in the middle of a bunch of different things. Now I go there and can walk for 2000m and not see one spawn. This goes for other planets too, seems that the spawn rate on Endor is much lower than it should be. The only advanced planets that seem to have the right spawn rates are Dathomir and Yavin 4.
Bottom line is we need more creatures spawns on Lok, Endor, Dantooine, Rori and Talus. These are all planets that seem pretty baren while walking around them.
But more importantly, we need to be able to choose the level of the mission we want to take, there should be no filters involved at all. Let us kill ourselves as we see fit, PLEASE!!!!!
JoeyMojo
Mon Mar 22, 2004 11:24 am
#28
On Patch Notes.
Save time for publish 8. The patch notes should just look like this:
Changes Made.
To promise communication and leave patch notes as vague as they were in publish 7 is absurd. Further, to leave the several feedback threads on the broad stroke changes left unattended (ie: no feedback from the developers) is borderline offensive.
The forums are crazy, and I understand this. That it's possible to pick key posts and respond to them is commendable. But to blatently ignore centralized feedback and questions is awful. You promise communication. We see steps made often enough. But then we see giant leaps backwards and there's wonder why many people are steamed at SOE as a whole.
There is no joy of exploration on patch day anymore. I don't look forward to figuring out what was changed. Patch notes are there so I can figure out what's different.
Rants made.
Save time for publish 8. The patch notes should just look like this:
Changes Made.
To promise communication and leave patch notes as vague as they were in publish 7 is absurd. Further, to leave the several feedback threads on the broad stroke changes left unattended (ie: no feedback from the developers) is borderline offensive.
The forums are crazy, and I understand this. That it's possible to pick key posts and respond to them is commendable. But to blatently ignore centralized feedback and questions is awful. You promise communication. We see steps made often enough. But then we see giant leaps backwards and there's wonder why many people are steamed at SOE as a whole.
There is no joy of exploration on patch day anymore. I don't look forward to figuring out what was changed. Patch notes are there so I can figure out what's different.
Rants made.
Strikke
Mon Mar 22, 2004 11:48 am
#29
5 months and counting since I became stuck in the middle of the Krayt Skull Quest.
October 2003: I did Borvo's Guard's missions. I did Thale's missions. I took the briefcase of cash to Borvo. He said, "Good", afterwhich he would only say, "Next". He gave me no missions and he didn't give me the gun to give to Huff. Borvo tells me to talk to his guards. Borvo's guards tell me to either get busy on Corellia, or if I'm finished there (which I am) to go see Borvo. Thale tells me to get busy. Huff won't talk to me because I don't have the gun I was supposed to be able to get from Borvo.
TH, is there any relief in sight or should I just give up?
CM_JaneDoe
Mon Mar 22, 2004 11:52 am
#30
mythronde wrote:
Kade_Deveron wrote:
I'd like to comment on the issue of armor. Armor in SWG is clearly too powerful. It encourages soloing to virtual exclusing of grouping, makes being unarmored an unviable option (esp in PvP), and creates a cookie cutter environment where everyone is wearing their 70%+ composite. It also leaves factional armor (and uniforms) unviable (the cost on faction armor doesnt help).
The fundamental problem is that the "penalty" for wearing armor isnt really a penalty. Buffs are so powerful and easy to get that everyone runs around in their armor and buffed. In order to balance armor, forget penalties to secondary stats. Try penalties to defensive skills (ie ranged/melee, KD, dizzy, etc..) or to weapon speed. Armor is cumbersome and should make players easier to hit as they are less mobile (but allowing the armor to absorb damaage of course), leaving unarmored players options for pvp or for, heaven forbid, factional armor.
Hey, this is a really good idea
I second that
~XX
Rorenikibi
Mon Mar 22, 2004 11:57 am
#31
For those of you stuck on the Borvo mission with the briefcase, drag and drop it out of your inventory onto Borvo. That will complete the quest.
As far as Publish 7 changes, you're talking to a very happy Master Carbineer/R3 combat droid owner. 
KardenTyrell
Mon Mar 22, 2004 12:09 pm
#32
Crossposting my idea from Galactic Civil War
---------------------------
Ive been lurking around allot trying to figure out a few of the biggest annoyances and hoping to come up with a feasible solutions. So far I had a load of positive responces..and hoping for this idea to catch on. Take note that Im hoping this to be seen in line with the upcoming combat changes, not the current state wich the galactic war is in
Armor
The number one problem with armor right now that it is too strong, meaning that it has next to none downside of wearing it with the powerfull buffs going around lately.
- Bring in more vulnerabilities in Armor, and when wants to patch up all vunerabilities in ones armors, there should be a penatly in overal effectiveness. The idea of 1 all end armor defeats the purpose of...well basicly ANY other armor types in the game.
- The penalties of wearing armor right now is just encumbrance, but due to buffs, they are next to nearly non existant. What would one experience if they wore heavy armor in a realistical sistuation.
Restricted movement: by that I mean the natural defences of ones profession are getting a penalty, meaning ranged/melee defence and the secondairy defence types Counter/Block/Dodge get hit by.....say for the sake of arguement %25 decrease. Defence versus a knocked down state change will be slightly increased, BUT recovering from one will be slower
Heavy burden: Obviously, having such heavy protective armor is heavy on ones body, Terrain negotiation is decreased in efficiency, and perhaps general walking/running speed is decreased with 1-2m per second(depending on how heavy the ecumbrance is,).
I believe these kind of changes would give someone a good realisation Do I want to wear armor? If you look in a starwarsy perspective, do you see everyone walking in tons of armor in normal days of life?
----------------------
Dizzy knockdown combination:
Kiting is a big problem for melee, and they need a way to stop or reduce that. However in the current state of affairs, being in a knocked down and dizzy state brings in complete helplessness to the target....wich is also one of the biggest reasons people are so frustrated about. This next Idea ive been posting in several threads, hoping for more responses.
When in a JUST dizzy state, one has a small chance to be knocked down if one is in heavy movement, running for instance.
When you are knocked down in a dizzy state you CAN get up, but if one tries to move away from current position, the disorientation will cause you to walk sidewards and silly and you fall back down. (Compare: Turn quickly in circles to get yourself dizzy, now...try to walk or run straight forward..see what I mean?If you stand still you can adjust your balance on your feet)
This would keep ranged from kiting melee, but one will not be helpless (pistoleers will also have a bigger incentive to battle close up, wich they supposed to excell in)
Knockdown attacks
If one is in a Prone position..there should be no way one could be knocked down.
Armor sets:
Basicly an enhancement from armor, to prevent people popping up armor whenever they please, a timer per armor section.
1.5 seconds delay per armor equipment, one has to be in a standing position to do so.....SOE could add a small motion capture of one moving their hands to their head or face and it equips for instance the Helmet. But clicking sections one by one can be time consuming, so one can designate several parts of Armor as an Armor set (minimum of 4 parts). When one wants to equip a set of armor, it will take 5 seconds to fully put it on, you will have to be standing still to do so. Again perhaps SOE could bring in another motion capture showing one is putting armor segments on as a whole set.
Speed heals:
Being to pop a stim in the middle of the fight without a real consequence is also quite gamebreaking. I had the following idea...
You have to be peaced andin kneeling position if you want to heal yourself, the animation has to fully complete and you cannot take damage during that animation or the heal is disrupted. (leveling much higher in medic and doctor will eliminate this handycap of heal disruptions)
Renairdor
Mon Mar 22, 2004 12:10 pm
#33
Various things :
a) Chef barrels do not work. Chefs are working with casks only at the moment.
b) Some chef foods can be factory run (Thankipallo (sp?) for example) but are not correctly pulled from crates. This means chefs need to manually make a number of foods.
c) Shuttles are constantly out of sync. It took me about20 minutes to travel from Dant to Lok (Dant (9min wait) -> Corellia (9 min wait) -> Naboo (instant! Yay!) -> Lok). Really looking forward to the Space port update
d) Stomach does not empty in 30 minutes. I took two vasarian brandy with 35 mins duration. 30 mins I could take one, but not two. When the other ran out, I still had stomach - so it was not clearning in 35 minutes.
e) When a Jedi dies to any reason, all BH missions should clear and visibility should reset. Since higher level Jedi are often hunted by a BH and a group, when a group member with the BH kills him the mission is still active
f) Jedi disconnect/reconnect and BH missions report target is offline until the jedi travels via space port.
g) Jedi deathcount is not working as advertised. Once you get 4 deaths, the next 2 even after restoring to 0 deaths results in skill lossin theinitiate tree. It should be die 4 times in a week gives you 1 'in the zone death'. Then back to 0, then 4 more deaths gives a 2nd 'in the zone' death. The buffer of 3 deaths needs to be reviewed correctly.
g) Something odd happened to Naritus on Saturday, where certain parts of Lok and Endor had *no* spawns. But I was happy to see a fair number of krayts on Tat, which had been lacking for quite some time during peak hours. Is there a spawn balancing issue?
h) When the server gets really busy, I noticed loot fails to occur. A team of 10 of us hunted early in the morning and loot seemed 'reasonable' with at least creds or a cheap item from most NPC's and mobs we killed. The morning krayts we killed after a ton of work yielded a bit of loot. After my friends list filled up and later in the day when it was busier, 8 krayts were killed with NO loot. 20 NPCs killed with NO loot. I'm not sure how the loot is determined by the server, but it seems when things are really busy- there are loot problems. I've been watching this for about a month now, and this is the best reason I can come up with
I) Looking forward to the fanfest! More details please! See you there...
Strikke
Mon Mar 22, 2004 12:12 pm
#34
Rorenikibi wrote:
For those of you stuck on the Borvo mission with the briefcase, drag and drop it out of your inventory onto Borvo. That will complete the quest.
October 2003: I did Borvo's Guard's missions. I did Thale's missions. I took the briefcase of cash to Borvo. He said, "Good", afterwhich he would only say, "Next". He gave me no missions and he didn't give me the gun to give to Huff. Borvo tells me to talk to his guards. Borvo's guards tell me to either get busy on Corellia, or if I'm finished there (which I am) to go see Borvo. Thale tells me to get busy. Huff won't talk to me because I don't have the gun I was supposed to be able to get from Borvo.
KardenTyrell
Mon Mar 22, 2004 12:13 pm
#35
-- oops I think I misplaced this post...though it was in concept forum --
Ocu_Lus
Mon Mar 22, 2004 12:23 pm
#36
Secret research data is an optional component that can be placed in chef supplements that BE's make.When a BE goes to craft a supplement, there is an optional slot that is labeled, "Secret ResearchData." It's so secret, that no one has any clue on what it is, or where one would get it. The BE's ASSUMED that it would be in the bunker because it had a bio-engineer theme to it. We thought, hey, secret research data, new dungeon with bio'd animals in it, the data MUST be in there. But it hasn't been located. Thanks for the response, I should have been more specific.
Thunderheart wrote:
Ocu_Lus wrote: I've got a quick question.First, the new Geo lab is awesome, I made it to the bottom with a rather large group and the Acklay is cool. The TKM that was constantly beating on the thing looted some venom and gave out some to a lot of the people there. My question is,a lot of BE's were assuming that the "Secret Research Data" would be found somewhere in the Geo lab, but no one has found it. Is it in the game at all? A simple yes or no would be fine with me, it would help stop the "What's the secret research data and where can I find it?" threads in the BE forum. If we know it's not in the game, we can quit looking, but if it is, I'll start doing a lot of quests for scientists. Thanks.
Help me out here. I havent been through the dungeon on live. What is "Secret Research Data" and why do you think its in the bunker? Did the herald tell you that?
nolan007
Mon Mar 22, 2004 12:25 pm
#37
KardenTyrell wrote:
Crossposting my idea from Galactic Civil War
---------------------------
Ive been lurking around allot trying to figure out a few of the biggest annoyances and hoping to come up with a feasible solutions. So far I had a load of positive responces..and hoping for this idea to catch on. Take note that Im hoping this to be seen in line with the upcoming combat changes, not the current state wich the galactic war is in
Speed heals:
Being to pop a stim in the middle of the fight without a real consequence is also quite gamebreaking. I had the following idea...
You have to be peaced andin kneeling position if you want to heal yourself, the animation has to fully complete and you cannot take damage during that animation or the heal is disrupted. (leveling much higher in medic and doctor will eliminate this handycap of heal disruptions)
that idea is far too extreme and nutty in general.
Armor does have big holes and draw backs as it stand...
The biggest issues: Star Wars combat should be about blasters, rifles, pistols, lightsabers, and the force. It shouldnot be about who has the most uber poison or disease... or who can hitan unhealable HAM pool. An unhealable HAM pool that is attackable is a very bad idea. Making poisons and disease key attacks for "Star Wars" universe combat was a bad idea as well. Those things should be considered... also, Jedi (or any other combat-related profession) with zero defense vs. anything is a horrible idea as well.
R2DADROID
Mon Mar 22, 2004 12:29 pm
#38
Kade_Deveron wrote:
I'd like to comment on the issue of armor. Armor in SWG is clearly too powerful. It encourages soloing to virtual exclusing of grouping, makes being unarmored an unviable option (esp in PvP), and creates a cookie cutter environment where everyone is wearing their 70%+ composite. It also leaves factional armor (and uniforms) unviable (the cost on faction armor doesnt help).
The fundamental problem is that the "penalty" for wearing armor isnt really a penalty. Buffs are so powerful and easy to get that everyone runs around in their armor and buffed. In order to balance armor, forget penalties to secondary stats. Try penalties to defensive skills (ie ranged/melee, KD, dizzy, etc..) or to weapon speed. Armor is cumbersome and should make players easier to hit as they are less mobile (but allowing the armor to absorb damaage of course), leaving unarmored players options for pvp or for, heaven forbid, factional armor.
As someone who just became accustomed to wearing armor and getting buffs all the time because everyone else is doing it, I totally agree.
The vague description of the upcomming combat system changes suggests that buffs and armor will be "rebalanced," which is a good thing.
Being totally invulnerable is not what Star Wars is about.
Yet here we all are, mostly invulnerable.
Even Jedi in the movie were vulnerable.
Luke almost got killed by a wompa ice creature and got his hand cut off, for example
R2DADROID
Mon Mar 22, 2004 12:33 pm
#39
Hmm the login problem has gotten worse than it was before.
Now it asks me to log in every time I try to post something.
I just got myself a landspeeder recently and love it.
I didn't care for them before we could color them, but now I love it more than my swoop and enjoy cruising around in it.
But there is a problem with the graphics that kind of ruins the experience for me.
Tall grass, particularly on Corellia, pokes through it.
It's like the whole vehicle has no solid substance to it.
I'd really like this to be fixed.