Development Cycle Archive

Thread: Great Expectations, Major Schedule Changes and making SWG the finest MMORPG ever

Lobar
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:31 pm
#456

I have been with this game from day one. Through all the bugs, through all the disappearing items, through the insane lag during battles, to the countless hours doing bugged missions (I was a MBH before they increased the invs XP). But I was trooper, because I thought deep down guys like TH and JustG were gamers and they would come through for us in the end.

What a joke. Shafting the player base again in hopes that the JTL will be more profitable than fixing what is broken. Here's a tip, no one believes the marketing jargon anymore. And to make matters even worse they are going to make the FS slot "mysterouis". Again another lie from "people will always know what they have to do next" . Another knee jerk reaction no doubt to there being WAY to many jedis. You can't create a elite player class, make it exclusive to a few, and expect the masses to just take it. We have to put up with enough of that in real life. And then add the ability for them to kill us at will.

Well. It's only my 15$, but in the end that's the only real power we have. So Good bye.

But for those that do stay, atleast you'll have a new race track and alot of jedi to play with. And hopefully this game will become the real SW experience we all wanted it to be. But after a year I refuse to pay to play a broken game any longer.


- Lobar
LittleYoda99
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:31 pm
#457






StarchMonkey wrote:

I was here in Beta.

I was here on launch day.

I was here when holocrons were added.

I'm here today.


Does the game have problems? Sure. Is it better than it was Launch Day? Christmas? Last month? For me it is. I'm looking forward to JTL and the other patches. I'm disappointed in not seeing the GCW fixes in, but I'm still having fun with what is in the game now.


My only concern is that these big fixes plus the expansion are going to put them about the time WoW and EQ2 come out. I hope the servers don't dry up.







I was here in Beta too.

I was here on Launch day. Second person on Wanderhome too.

I was here for holocrons.

I was here for every promise made and broken.

I was here for every revamp promised and delayed. And delayed.

I was here for even more promises made.

I was here for even more promises broken.


I will not be here any more. Enough is enough.


I may be here later. Once the game works the way it is supposed to.



Akanah,
Risen, Dantooine.
Zetic
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:31 pm
#458






Thunderheart wrote:





fatgit wrote:
Seeing as Jedi and CH got "balanced" (CH's MONTHS ago), can we expect these profs to be "un-balanced" until the balance ?

The Combat Balance will now be at least 1 year late if it goes live in November (we were told the CB would start in November 2003 for 3 months).




Yes. I'll be working with all of you and the correspondents to identify the most important changes and work with the team to add them.





Does this include rethinking Jedi Xp loss on death? Please please please lower the 200,000 xp loss. I spent all day grinding for lightsaber tech 2, and just as I hit the 400k mark some BH comes by and takes me out, and I'm back to another few hours of grinding for the same skill!! How is that fun?

CyberData4
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:33 pm
#459

Thunderheart.....I'm done with being polite and putting a nice smile on things.


This is how I really feel:


I don't know if the dev team of SWG is just stupid or completely incompetant. This game has been out for a year. 365 days. In all that time you guys have pushed "content" to live without taking the time to fix things first. Do you have ANY idea, as a developer, how wrong that is? Especially with an MMORPG. This isn't some title that still in development in Austin. This a live service, not just a 50$ game. For 15$ a month, I expect a working product.


No, I don't expect EVERYTHING to work. Bugs are often common in this genre and I think we all except it, but this is beyond belief. How can you honestly justify revamping Jedi (5% of the population) before fixing BASIC combat. I mean, for God's sakes man! COMBAT! One of the most fundamental parts of this game. And you've basically told all of us to **** off.


And now you're not going to fix the ground portion until AFTER the space expantion. Do you or your superiors have any idea, whatsoever, how blatant;y stupid that is? Honestly? What perspective are you viewing this situation with? Now you claim the dev team will take time to make some basic combat changes. But I ask....why should we believe you? You guys have no credibility with us anymore.


I'll put it like this: Releasing the space expansion before repairing combat is like adding a second story on a house before the foundation has even been completed.
Shay1035
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:33 pm
#460



Thunderheart, you're meant to communicate to the devs what the users think:


well 99% of your customers are in rage now! will you communicate this to the devs? are you minister of propaganda of the fascist SOE or will u do your job?


GCW was to be the crown jewel of this game and it have sucked and been broken since start. Prof's can't become more unbalanced really and the damn increasing jedi's make the entire game a joke, but ITS NOT FUNNY!


haha, SOE one of the worlds largest companies get such a loser dev team... amazing....

Message Edited by Shay1035 on 07-15-2004 04:36 PM

Kharn_JB
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:33 pm
#461

Combat and GCW revamps pushed back further... Great, just great...
DFA-FrstbyteOO
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:34 pm
#462






Zetic wrote:





Thunderheart wrote:





fatgit wrote:
Seeing as Jedi and CH got "balanced" (CH's MONTHS ago), can we expect these profs to be "un-balanced" until the balance ?

The Combat Balance will now be at least 1 year late if it goes live in November (we were told the CB would start in November 2003 for 3 months).




Yes. I'll be working with all of you and the correspondents to identify the most important changes and work with the team to add them.






Does this include rethinking Jedi Xp loss on death? Please please please lower the 200,000 xp loss. I spent all day grinding for lightsaber tech 2, and just as I hit the 400k mark some BH comes by and takes me out, and I'm back to another few hours of grinding for the same skill!! How is that fun?







Heres a hint, Hide your jedi better. Ya know,, kinda like jedi did in this time period in Star Wars.. you might just not make the BH terminals that way.

Message Edited by DFA-FrstbyteOO on 07-15-2004 06:36 PM




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WolfwoodCross
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:36 pm
#463

I'm not gonna flame TH, because, when it comes down to it, he is only the messenger. I'm not going to kill the messenger.


However, I have to question the priorities of the Development team. It seems illogical to me that a fundemental system (Combat) and the overall end-game experience (GCW) is being left by the way-side until more people come along to publish it.


I grasp that you may need more people to work on it, but in the amount of time since the Combat Balance/GCW revamps original hinting-at, it could've been slowly and methodically being pushed through by your apparent smaller team. I mean, I know I could have waited for the Image Designer revamp if it meant getting the core systems of combat and GCW finished earlier.


Hell, your original combat system works, it just needs number tweaking and buff balancing. That's it, really. The GCW is by far a bigger animal, but it is not undoable. Just look at popular PVP models in other games for inspiration. FFXI's Conquest Mode, Lineage 2's Castle Seige Mode, even look to non-RPG games. You're bound to find something *cough* Star Wars Battlefront integrated into SWG *cough*


In the mean-time, could you at least fill the game with quests, quests, and more quests? I mean, nothing huge, just stuff that players can get involved in. I'm sure the JTL team (being 100% knowledgable about the JTL system and all) can handle the Beta testing. Leave it to Cinco; give us some enjoyable quests or something in the mean-time.

Xifera
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:37 pm
#464

I will no longer contribute funding for a game that ceases to support it's community. and continually focuses to make more money at the expense of the happiness of it's players.


Account cancelled until I see the GCW, and I will not be buying JTLS.


I think you need a new public relations person, because they were a moron if they said we'd be happy with this.



- Tet'ra (Eclipse)
GreatWarrior
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:37 pm
#465






Thunderheart wrote:



Finishing the revamp of the Jedi profession is a big task. Being a Jedi is a big part of the Star Wars experience and it is a big game system.





No, I’m sorry Thunderheart, but Jedi are not a big part of the Star Wars experience. If a player wanted to become a Jedi they can go play Jedi Academy or Jedi Outcast... two fine products by LucasArts I might add... they don't belong in Star Wars Galaxies. People got Star Wars Galaxies because they are sick of being Jedi all the time. Every game LucasArts has been releasing lately gives you a Jedi, and we don't want that. We want a game where you are in Star Wars, the REAL Star Wars that we know about. Star Wars had very few Jedi, and all were hidden. The Empire was powerful, conquering and destroying, holding people against their will, and the people were afraid.


In this game, both factions are horribly broken and not lined up with the Star Wars story as they should be. Jedi are seen far too much, and should be in hiding. If they want to go out, great, but they should be killed in public for exposing themselves. Jedi should be afraid for their lives, as Obiwan and Yoda were even. There isn’t enough sound, NPCs don’t give any. Stormtrooper deaths should even have the famous armor flop sound included. There is less music then other award winning role playing games, there is less interaction and group efforts, horribly imbalanced PvP and a useless GCW with no point of it at all. Faction items are useless to use, ranks don’t do anything for any factioned NPC creations, role playing doesn't give you any incentives and it doesn’t separate you from the general community like a "helper" may with the addition of a tag. Player cities look all the same, no flowery structures like Tatooine towers, that would make this game feel more like Star Wars.


There is a tremendous amount of work needed, and Jedi should be the least of anyone’s concern to be improved. Jedi... should have been killed off months ago, it alone, including holo-grinding, has completely damaged this game and changed the focus of development. The focus on Jedi has split the community, with the majority who want nothing to do with them. Many hundreds even thousands of hours probably went into two complete publishes of Jedi, when it could have went to much more important features of the game. This game has potential, but each day its ability to expand is being hampered by poor planning.




oOoooOooooOooooOooOooOoOOOOo
--------- A True Corrupted Politican of Corporate Universal ---------
<-( ¤ Smürg Suresîght ¤ )->
-------------- Married to an evil politican too /tag Lykazie ---------------
oooOoooOoooooOoOooOOooOooOoo
Funny Quote of the Month
"'blue holoed people used to be the nerfed people 'elder jedis' yay we getting nerfed" - A Jedi on Ent Holograms


IllandroKIlek
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:39 pm
#466

This is a sad, sad day for SWG.


What happens to this "Grand Timeline" of improvements when JTL doesn't ship in October as planned? The last time I checked it was supposed to have been implimented in FEBRUARY. I'm sorry. I realize this is not your fault TH and I don't envy your job today. Given the Dev's track record on actually delivering on their stated timeline, how can we seriously have any confidence in even this October scheduled release? If JTL is delayed then all these other improvements will be similarly delayed? Publish after publish has missed its stated timelline. Why will JTL be any different.







/sigh For what SWG could have been.
/weep for what it is today
DaHowler
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:40 pm
#467






Thunderheart wrote:





Meplorium wrote:


TH please do convey to the higher ups that the customers are very pleased with the job the few people working on this project are doing but are very displeased that there are few people working on this project.





I have. I've been going over the details, the history and the effect this announcementis having on the community for some time now. I've spent more than a couple of sleepless nights in the past couple of weeks thinking about this post. It's not easy for anyone involved.








You know, I've read through this whole thread sitting here trying to figure out whether to stay or not (and checking on the release date for WoW to see if it is coming before the combat rebalance) This will be remembered as a turning point for this MMORPG, and I don't mean a good one. This will drive out masses andJTL will fail to bring them back due to EQ2 and WoW releases. A sad day indeed.


Then I got to this post I was floored. This says alot guys. Pay attention here. Be pissed. You should be. Quit if you want. You'd have just cause. But don't blame TH. If you ever had doubt about who's side TH is on this should tell you. What a rollercoaster this whole thing is. As cool as his story seemed up front, given the turns this whole thing has taken I'm glad to not be in TH's shoes. It's hard enough sitting here.


Keep the faith, TH. I hope I am wrong about this being the beginning of the end. You, and many of us, deserve more.






Gamax

20 professions and no unlock
Master Armorsmith, Master Artisan
-=ASTS=- Brand Gear on Lok in the town of Area Sixty Six (mall behind shuttle)
(KAURI)
Leitor
Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:41 pm
#468






BlueCelt wrote:





garvin wrote:

Just and FYI...this may not mean a lot, but it does to me...


Ever since we Correspondents heard about the Delay, TH has gone out of his way to get as much details from us about what SOE can do from now until the CB launches to help our communities...He has been seriously energized and focused on collecting our issues and I'm confident that, even though the CB is delayed, we will see many good things coming soon, especially around Publish 11...


TH knew before posting this that it wouldn't be very popular...but I believe him when he says that, in the long run, it will be a good thing they made this move...


If Yoda can have patience turning Luke into a Jedi (pretty much ended his life it did)...I think we can have patience with the Devs making this game be everything it can and will be...





Umm why should we continue to have patience? Where has having patience and believing in the devs actually meant something for those of us waiting on this.


Devs haven't kept a promise to the general population on aPatch since Player Cities.







If Garvin says there is a reason to be patient and that TH is going above and beyond, that is good enough for me. If you want to see why, check out the Commando forums sometime.



Q'ilek
Scylla

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