Development Cycle Archive

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picklesSW wrote:
"But to miss starting threads in the In Concept Forum by almost a week and to be a day and 1/2 late with the "uber" post, to me is inexcusable."

Dancers are still waiting for a response on our "top 5" over a month after other professions have theirs. I think it's safe to say they need a lot of work on their communication.

- J

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Keep in mind, though, Pickles, that Droids and DE's were supposed to be the MAIN feature for the January publish.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=882482#M882482

"Keep in mind, though, Pickles, that Droids and DE's were supposed to be the MAIN feature for the January publish."

I have no problem with that. By all means, discuss droids. Fix them, make them useful. I'm not asking for them to do anything but communicate with us once in a while. No developer has posted in the dancer forum since last July, no developer has posted in ANY of the entertainer forums since early November. Our correspondent cannot get them to answer our top 5 issues, something we gave them months ago and that other professions had answers to in December. I'm not asking to take development time away from chefs, DEs or anyone else that needs it. I'm asking for the development team, and TH in particular, to communicate with us just a little bit.

They're blatantly ignoring the entire entertainer player base and I for one would like to know why.

- J

after seeing this in the welcome back, check us out thingy i decided to find a place to post this, but after looking for a place to put this up i found that it was hard to see a topic that it would be easy to put this into.

i read it on the check us out page, for the returning customers, about the warren being a dungeon. is this star wars? or everquest? can we call it something else, how about installation? or uber mission? i dont have many ideas about it, but can we stop calling it "dungeon" there has to be something better that is more star warsy.

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Thunderheart wrote:

Droid Handling update:

Sorry folks but its going to be tomorrow morning. The draft is done, but JustG and Blair want to review it again before we post it.

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Ok, it's tomorrow afternoon now.....

And while you're chatting with JustG,ask him what happened to this statement:

JustG wrote:

"I will tell you this, Droids (and DE's) are going to be the MAIN feature for the January publish. We will be fixing alot of things and adding combat droids.

Yes, talk is cheap. I will get you more info as the schedule solidifies.

thanks,

- g"

Fellow players,

A situation of great concern to us all has transpired in the game. A friend, a close friend of mine has suffered a great injustice and has been banned from the game.

As a guild, we fully endorse the action on the part of SOE to ban players who exploit the game and unfairly profit at the expense of legitimate players. However, players so banned are left without any way to redress the accusations against them, a capricious and dangerous precedent as recent UNbannings of banned players have demonstrated.

I urge you to this thread. It is long. It is heavy reading but in it you will find a considered and reasonable post from our guild chancellor and we urge your support. Without being hysterical, if it can happen to a guy that some 100 guild members would vouch for, would invite into their homes and trust with their own real world possessions, it can happen to you, too.

Please read here: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=general_any_topic&message.id=118101

Thank you,
A Fan.

I'm worried about account banning at the moment. It seems you can be acused of credit duper, and banned with no defense or chance to reverse it, by being a trader of expensive items. In the logs I assume they see player A duping, then transfering to player B. So player B now has a large quantity of duped credits, as is assumed to be in on it. But how are we suppose to know the credits we're receiving aren't safe and could get us banned? Is it simply not safe, or advisable, to ever sell expensive items like holocrons in game, or to take large and expensive orders?

What happens if someone donates a large ammount of credits for a special PA project or something?

Or the ultimate grief tool. Discover a credit dupe, start a new account, pass large amounts to all the people you dislike with a bank tip, and watch them get banned for life for duping.

I don't really feel that safe at the moment, especially as tips can't be blocked. Someone could get me banned for an exploit I've never used. I think it's an issue that needs looking at. At least if someone is a player B rather than a player A, they should get a proper investigation, with the chance to prove it was a trade or some similar situation.

I have no doubt that the developers mean well by providing everyone with Holocrons for Christmas. However, I must say that the current system of opening the FSS is less than ideal. Under the current system both the GCW and game economy are being rapidly undone. Players are burning through professions as quickly as they can to meet the requirements of the Holocrons, rather than playing professions they enjoy and filling roles in the game. Combat players are grinding crafting, and worse yet, crafting players have abandoned their trade, leaving the player base without a stable supply system. Entire guilds are coming apart as their memberships pursue this goal.

The worst part? The players who refuse to turn the game on its head by Hologrinding are the ones that get punished. I play a smuggler/pistoleer on Naritus. I love my professions and the character I have built, and simply refuse to give in to the epidemic that has swept our server. And because of that I will NEVER open that FSS slot (I did look at my holocron, out of curiosity. It wants me to be a tailor.....).

Now you can say that I am choosing to not get the FSS slot, and thats true. However, Im participating in constructive ways on my server; playing the game, rather than endlessly grinding. I "thought" thats what the developers wanted, but their Jedi system epitomizes grinding.

So how do you make a system that rewards players for actually PLAYING the game, rather than GRINDING the game? Well, first, the cats out of the bag. We all have a pretty darn good idea of how to become Jedi at this point, so we can drop most of the secrecy bit and provide questing paths.

I suggest creating Jedi Quest paths of various types that fit the style of play people are INTERESTED IN, instead of the insanity of the current system, which destabilizes the game.

One example,

Explorer Path:
Visit every major city and static POI
Master the Ranger Profession.
Gain x amouunt of ranger xp above and beyond master (this might be equiv of mastering ranger 5-8 times?)
Full a lengthy quest that fits the role of ranger
Finish all the themeparks in the game.

Crafter Path
Master 2 elite crafting professions
Make x amount of crafting xp above that required by the professions
Sell x number of items
Complete a crafter quest
etcc

The idea here is to create long term quests/objectives that fit within players current styles and allow them to achive FSS without abandoning their current professions. Yes, these could be ground out. However, the point of such a system would be that players who dont want to grind can also get the FSS after enough gameplay. The objectives would be very challenging, but allow the game to go on without the profession hopping we are seeing today. Note that this in no way changes the current system. Players can still burn endlessly through professions if they like. However now they would have alternatives that enhance rather than destroy meaningful gameplay.

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WHEN oh WHEN dear TH are you going to actually tell the truth about anything time wise?

Do you have any idea at all how frustrating it is to wait through your confusion, then be told something will happen..and it NEVER happens on time. Not once, not ever.

Runesabre 'had to go out of town on 'personal business'' eh? Somehow I don't think so.

Constructively, please stop promising what you clearly cannot deliver, the frustration it builds is not worth it.

Please Fix DE, it's been useless long enough.

Thankyou for listening

OK, so as many of us have been saying from the beginning, according to TH's post in the Weekly Roundtable Discussion, http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=in_live&message.id=1743#M1743.

ANY proposal that will be concidered MUST take these points into account:

Well said Kade_Deveron

I, for one, am going to play my chosen professions and have fun doing it...

Got a couple of questions, hope they don't sound like rants.

1. When are the Devs going to fix the Armor "holes"?

Personally I'm getting tired of having to buy new armor everytime my current set gets to around 70-75%. It seems that once Composite armor reaches that level of condition it becomes ineffective and basically doesn't work at all. This puts the active combat people in a never ending cycle of replacing armor on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Besides Armor already decays with use, but now there is the added decay upon death so really the players are seeing double decay right now on armor.