Development Cycle Archive

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Hunt_Master wrote:

Prepatch:

I had 18 pearls, 3 sabers made of 3 crystals/1 pearl, 1 saber made of 2 pearls and1 saber made with one -9 FC pearl.

Of the 18 loose pearls 4 were -9, 3 were -8 and 3 were -7.

Post-patch:

Of ALL 35 ofthose pearls I ended up with ONE -9, ONE -8 and TWO -7.

Devs please just admit that the FC of pearls in this patch had NOTHING to do with prepatch stats..

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It didn't. When they had TC Valcyn up briefly, I dismantled my sabers there and the stats are way different from what I got on live now. I got some decent Pearls from the conversion on TC Valcyn. On Live the ones I got back are almost useless save for one of them. It was all based on Random. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that those who took the luck line maybe got back better pearls? (I haven't asked around for any stats on who did take that line)

I like the new system in general. My comment is regarding crystal drops. This needs some more work.

While the number of crystal dropping mobs has increased, crystals decay as well as a new requirement for "color cyrstals". The mobs these drop off of are very well camped (still) and are quite a struggle to gather.

Here is a summary of my efforts this morning during non-primetime:

- Spent 30 minutes finding someone to buff me, waiting in line, and buff related travel

- Spent 20 minutes getting to Aqualish cave on Talus after getting buffed. Cave was empty with a person standing out in front waiting for it to respawn

- Spent 15 minutes getting back to the starport and making my way to Dantooine (I was luckier with travel this time). Went to the Kunga Stronghold. There were 5 mobs inside and someone was in there cleaning them up.

- Spent 10 minutes getting to the Janta stronghold. Another empty cave with a person waiting for respawn

- Spent 10 minutes traveling to starport and on the way ran into a Janta settlement. As I was cleaning it out, another player came by and kill stole the rest.

I didn't even bother going to the Tusken Fort on Tatooine as that has been permacamped for some time.

Is this what is to become of SWG? Endless farming, camping, and kill stealing, just like EverQuest? The lucky ones (or those that can stand camping, farming, and other rude behavior) then turn around and sell their farmed goods for millions of credits?

I would like to see more instanced dungeons doable by the less-uber (getting crystals from Corvette mobs is a pipe dream for many, for example). The Kunga and Janta aren't the best of friends. Why can't you get a quest from one that would spawn an instance of the other's dungeon just for you/your group?

There has to be a better way to do this that makes for fun, not frustrating gameplay.

Advancement for jedi at the beginning is just too harsh right now. A padawaan with no lightsaber skills can look for at best 20k-50k jedi exp per hour or two. A jedi does not begin to make very much exp untill he reaches at least rank IV in one of the 3 saber styles. Please consider doing something to at least lower the exp requirements for the lightsaber trees. These skills are too essential to a jedi to make them as hard as the other trees. Possibly adding back in jedi exp for using combat special but leaving out the healing jedi exp that was being exploited by afk rooftop jedi.

As far the robes. I know you said that the robe colors denote rank. But I've never really seen this in the movies. All of our padawan robes look like the one worn by Obi-wan in Episodes 1 and 2. Anakin is also a padawan yet his robe is black/brown and dark green. I just think a little customization would be nice. Also when will the already existing cloak models be able to be worn over the jedi robes? Why can't you create a seperate character paperdoll slot just for cloaks/capes. These could be worn over anything, such as Jedi robes or a full suit of Composite armor.

On the conversation process. I feel this was very poorly planned out. The jedi who did testing on TC2 might had a fair idea as to what to expect. But those that were not able to were mostly cluless. I know I definetly regret putting my points in to master the Lightsabre Techniques tree instead of an actual sabre tree. If I had been on TC2 I would have realized how incredibly low the damage on lightsabers are for the novice lightsaber and Tier 1 boxes. Also many of us still have no understanding of some of the force sensitive skills. I do not remember seeing any reply as to whether the melee speed and accuracy would affect lightsabers. Nor do many of us have a clue what Jedi Luck and Vehicle Customization do. We've already had several debates on the Jedi boards on whether Jedi Luck is actually raising our chances to loot an item or lowering our chances since it's making us loot credits instead. Some clarification on this would be greatly appreciated. A friday feature that gives a detailed description of all the Force Sensitive skills would go a long ways towards helping out many currently confused jedi as well as future ones when Publish 10 arrives.

As far as the lightsabers go. I do have some concerns over how greatly the Force Cost increases per generation. My force regen comes nowhere near enough to cover me using my 2nd generation with a -7 FC pearl and a -5FC crystal in it. The word on the boards is that you removed the fix for the Jedi's Force Regen being so very low. Was this intentional? Should it take 15-20 minutes for a jedi to regain his force pool? I dread to see what using a fourth generation saber without 4 -9 FC crystals will be like.

As far the 200k jedi death penalty. I feel this is just much too harsh at first. The death penalty should scale with the jedi's difficulty level. So that a Padawaan may loose 50k, but the jedi knight still looses 200-300k.

Oh and here's a bonus for you TH. It has to do with the healing tree. Why are the skills for jedi to heal their damage and heal their wounds in two seperate trees while those that allow the jedi to do the same to other players is in one tree? Why not condense the first two trees in jedi healing into one tree. Then use the 2nd tree that used to cover wounds and add in Force Healing buff powers. They do not have to be anywhere near the strength or duration of a Master Doctor's buff. Not even half. But say the upper power in this box could give 1000 to Health/Action/Mind and 500 to the 6 substats for 30 minutes or so? It would make sense and could help out a Jedi greatly.

Jedi Padawan Robes need considerable attention:

1. We were promised resists, we received no resists, this has been beaten into the ground by many others so I'm not going to harp on it much. I can live with that somewhat, but I sure take a beating compared to what I used to in armor. Defense mods from other professions and from Jedi itself do not compensate for the lack of armor. High-level content is off-limits to me because of the fear of taking extreme damage, especially from a melee opponent. Thankfully, my saber block compensates for this against ranged opponents, but 99% of PvE is against melee. We need some kind of melee defensive adjustment with the robes at minimum.

2. The aesthetics of the robe are terrible. I have stated this dozens of times, and will restate it here.

I understand the problems with the hooded robes/backpacks... fine, I can live with it.

What I CAN'T live with (from an aesthetic point of view) is that at this time, regardless of the 31 robes that Thunderheart says exist, it would seem the breakdown is 15 light-side FRS robes, 15 dark-side FRS robes, and 1 Padawan robe.

The padawan robe, as we have all seen, is a very plain white tunic with brown boots. And, it is a virtual requirement in most cases to wear it, because of the bonus to regeneration and force pool. ESPECIALLY at lower levels, the extra force and regen is crucial.

Because of this, I am begging, pleading, whatever... can we PLEASE get a limited color palatte to adjust these robes to customize our character a bit?

My reasoning is based off the following: First of all, SWG has one of the most robust character customization systems of any MMORPG, or any game period. The fact that an Image Designer and Tailor profession exist speaks volumes about this. Forcing all entry-level Jedi and even those Jedi who never enter the FRS to look virtually identical is contrary to the system, considering Jedi is one of the main "end-game" content points we have at this time.

Secondly, as I mentioned above, many Jedi will not choose to enter the FRS even when "mastering" their skill points, and for any Jedi that does not convert over from 4/4/4/4 guardian, or future new Jedi, we have a long grind ahead of us staring at blaze-white pajamas.

Thirdly, in the movies, no "padawan" that I saw wore this pure white. Obi-Wan in Episode 1 had a more cream-colored tunic, and Anakin in Episode 2 had very dark padawan garb. Obviously, there is no "standard uniform" for padawans in SWG movies, why should there be in this game with its fantastic character customization system?

And to mention Thunderheart's punchlist comments about the problems with the robes, I would like to make my additonal comments:

1.) TH seems to indicate that robes are NOT equal to clothing, they are instead equal to armor, with how the game treats them. Ok, fine... my composite armor allows me to shift colors on it at any time. Why is this not possible to impliment with the robes? A simple 5-6 color palatte would seem to be quite easy, the code already would seem to exist for more complicated changes to armor coloration.

2.) The whole "hiding your rank" business... No other profession is "given away" by their choice of clothing. I can't tell a master pistoleer from a novice medic by their clothes. And Jedi seem to look the same to me with just a slight variation in STYLE not COLOR at ranks... Dark Jedi have dark tones, Light Jedi have light tones. I can tell a Jedi is FRS ranked by the color of their robe (if it isn't blaze white, they must be ranked), but that's it. The perma-overt status probably would have given it away as well, you know? Does this really matter?

Not to mention, truthfully, a Jedi can choose to wear any clothing at any time to disguise themselves. Is it game-breaking that my Jedi wears pants? No, but you sure won't be able to pick me from another player by my clothes alone. The only problem I see is my Jedi loses force regen and power bonus from not having my robe on, from the simple desire to not look like I'm confined to white pajamas. So what's the issue, please explain this?

So in conclusion, could we please have (ideally) a 3-part color palatte to choose a tunic color, pants color and boots color from a selection of white/tan/brown/grey/black? That way, we'd have a better variety of appearances while still staying within the "earth tones" that Jedi favored (no ridiculous colors are being requested) and we can feel more comfortable that are characters still retain a shred of uniqueness. Worst-case scenario, can we have a single color palatte that chooses from the white/tan/brown/grey/black that modifies the tunic/pants the same color and leaves the boots alone?

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Chianti wrote:

There is a major imbalance now that curepoison and curedisease have been nerfed to hell and back.

Essentially, curepoison and disease now hit for a little over 100 strength, meaning most PVE poisons and disease actually take two heals to cure. Wow. PVP strength poisons and disease are MUCH stronger than pve, so I'm confused over what the devs were thinking when they nerfed this one.

Lets place this in a pvp scenario:

Jedi goes to pvp with friends

Opposite faction combat medic throws mind poison from 90m

Melee classes from opposite faction group gang up on jedi

Jedi is forced to use healpoison and disease several times to cure

Because of the required healing, the jedi has no time to fight the melee classes attacking him

By the time jedi is cured, combat medic hasthrown 10 more poisons because of the effects of Havla

Jedi Never has time to defend or attack being stuck in healing constantly

Jedi never had time to effectively cure poison because the poison took effect before it subsided

I tested this with a 533 effect AREA mind poison last night, and it took a master healer 5 shots to cure the poison. By the time it was cured, his mind was entire drained (unless he used totalheal, in which case it still took 5 shots to heal the poison, but it healed his mind each time too).

It is IMPOSSIBLE for a jedi to pvp if they are left healing themselves constantly. Additionally, healing will make little difference since it takes so long to cure, the poison will already have done its work several times over.

THIS IS GAME BREAKING. The devs need to make curepoison and curedisease for jedi an instant cure. Additionally, robes need to mitigate and resist combat medics disease and poison, ultimately leading to invulnerability for the council members and leader. That is, unless it was the intent of the devs to allow a single combat medic to do away with all 11 members of the jedi council.

For reference, devs, poisons with > 400 effect are pretty common these days.

Message Edited by Chianti on 07-02-2004 12:42 PM

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When I think Star Wars, I don't think uber poisons and uber diseases.

I really wish the developers would make poisons and diseases something is a secondary attack... not the meat and potatoes of every STAR WARS PvP event. PvE? Sure.. have some uber poisons and disease; however, inPvP, itshould be a secondary attack.