Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Weekly Rountdable Discussion (Week Ending 1-18-04)
You know something is wrong with the game when you pay to post more then to play it.
JediMindslayer wrote:
EpiFett wrote:THIS NEW FORM OF DISCUSSION SUCKS.
THERE IS NO DISCUSSION.
THERE IS NO FORM.
THERE IS NO FEEDBACK.
THUNDERHEART HAS ABANDONED THE PLAYERBASE AFTER CONVINCINGLY TELLING US HE WAS NOT GOING TO.
WHAT... THE... HELL...
BTW i totally agree with this poster.
The official post count has dropped about 9 million percent since the General Forum was turned off.
They said they would spend more time in the profession forums (they dont)
They said they would spend more time in the server forums (only if you are from eclipse)
They said there would be greater and more efficient communication (there isnt)
basically, they fed us a bunch of horse poopy just to justify the closing of the general forum.
maybe theyt are getting ready to fire Thunderheart and do away with the community correspondant altogether.
or worse... they are replacing Thunderheart with ABSOR or ABASHI.... god save us all....
BTW, I agree.
Xader_Vartec wrote:
I can't believe I am saying this to Naufragus but. . .
You are correct. TH has not posted useful information since, in my approximation, the beginning of December. Maybe the end of November.
Most useful information I have gotten has been from profession correspondents OR players in specific professions boards. Unfortunately, since I don't visit EVERY board I am not aware of all the changes.
For example, I saw a chef post in this bog of feces that they are putting in a chef change with the next major patch (?). Another example, is a while back when the invincible template was nerfed did we even GET an announcement AT ALL from TH about it? I don't recall one. Not even one from the BH correspondent was posted. I heard about it most and first from the other players testing it.
Although I doubt any of the correspondents have gotten decent feedback lately in their forum.
Communication is now a one way stream that is probably redirected to /dev/null.
I would like to state something. TH is not intented to update everyone on upcomming changes. If wana know what is upcomming. Then you should accually visit the proffession threads. Check the Stickies. I know its hard to read but if you wana know that is the way to know. If you couldnt tell there is no publish or TC updates yet making notes useless.I go to about every profession and check the sticky list almost everytime I log in to see what is going on. TH doesnt play this game like a correspondent does. He doesnt know the proffessions like they do. Thats why they are there to be our insider inside. TH is suppose to talk with them on a constent basis which I am sure he does. If your too lazy to go check the proffession forums then that is your problem, you have 1486 post count but do you accually read threads?
I have red over 55k of posts, I only speak when I think I have worth while to say. Now I am getting tired of people complaining about communication when they themselves dont even read anything else. They cant post a update. If they did it would be in the version of update notes. Some of you people are soo literal that they cant afford to do that, or else get flamed for the next month on something that couldn't be achieved that month.
Soo my advise to you. Go check the proffession forums sticky's then come here.
Georb79 wrote:
I would like to state something. TH is not intented to update everyone on upcomming changes. If wana know what is upcomming. Then you should accually visit the proffession threads. Check the Stickies. I know its hard to read but if you wana know that is the way to know. If you couldnt tell there is no publish or TC updates yet making notes useless.I go to about every profession and check the sticky list almost everytime I log in to see what is going on. TH doesnt play this game like a correspondent does. He doesnt know the proffessions like they do. Thats why they are there to be our insider inside. TH is suppose to talk with them on a constent basis which I am sure he does. If your too lazy to go check the proffession forums then that is your problem, you have 1486 post count but do you accually read threads?
I have red over 55k of posts, I only speak when I think I have worth while to say. Now I am getting tired of people complaining about communication when they themselves dont even read anything else. They cant post a update. If they did it would be in the version of update notes. Some of you people are soo literal that they cant afford to do that, or else get flamed for the next month on something that couldn't be achieved that month.
Soo my advise to you. Go check the proffession forums sticky's then come here.
Did you miss this?:
There is NO INFORMATION THERE!!!
For example: this is one of the latest posts in the DE forum by the correspondent:
I can neither confirm nor deny any allegations of sm... Oh, sorry wrong question.
Its been fairly quite on the DEV front today. I know that there was a meetingtoday to go over some things, but thats about all I know. Publish 6 should be on its way tomorrow. There are at least5 items related to DE that will be going in on this publish, but they might not be the be all to end all that everyone is hoping for. The first and foremost concern that Sintrosi, and now I, pushed forare bug fixes.
As for the Droid Invasion info, I really can't say much at this time. Take that statement as you will, it is purposefully meant to be vague, but at least its an update.
This post is just shy of useless. It's obvious that even if the Devs ARE giving the correspondents information they are explicitely telling them to keep their mouths shut.
It has become obvious that there is a concerded(sp) effort to shut down communication to the player via the boards.
Xader_Vartec wrote:
WHAT?
Raph made UO. Raph is the one that decided that uber loot wouldn't be in SWG.
So......you think Raph just ignored what he learned in UO and decided to piss of players by not having uber loot?
I think it is obvious that Raph had reasons for there not being uber loot. Raph as stated in the past that (at least) one reason for this was that it conflicted with crafters.
So.........your saying that Raph didn't know what he was talking about?
No, I said I'd be interested to see how Raph Compared the gaming value of the loot system in UO compared to that in SWG. Seeing as how Raph has a unique perspective on both games and both systems, I believe it would be worthy to read what he had to say on the topic. (I Actually like Raph, and alot of his "Game Concept" Ideas.) Alot of what he writes is more informative/valuable/interesting then the normal responses given here.
UO is still going and still selling new copies of the game. Will SWG in 5-6 years?
The point is, Loot does not destroy crafting. As is evident in UO and other games.
JediMindslayer
Its really simple if you think about it. Let's take for example EQ. With any of the high end mobs (Lady Vox, Plane of Fear etc etc) you had the chance of Epic items or really good items to use for certain classes. But to defeat these characters you had to truely have a raid team. Also these items were random drops, so you weren't promised anything but the chance of getting lucky. Some of these items were class specific, race specific or components that had to be used to put together for a Epic.
If you implemented the idea of high end weapons it is still only a very limited supply, so in reality it would by no means crash the artisians cash cow or use in the game. If it was part of a quest, you could incorporate the use of a master weaponsmith or master armorsmith to put together the components. So lets do the math.
Say you have a major boss NPC that you had to put down to say get a .........Vibrolance with high stats. This boss only spawned once every 3 days. So at the most that is 10 vibrolances a month IF someone was lucky enough to get all pops (as well as a group able to handle him). Make the loot no Drop so whoever got a weapon could not trade or sell it. The majority of players would not all focus on the 1 fantastic weapon but the many really good weapons that can be found from local crafters and vendors.
Your arguement is rediculous. To actually think that mobs dropping good loot would affect the artisian class in anyway is just selfish and narrow sighted. If you want to talk about something that has totally screwed the market, how about holocron farmers! Those guys completely screwed everything up for everyone in the game.
i should not have to waste my time wading through 30 forums to find small tidbits of information...
or now wade thru 70 pages of crap to find some nugget that is useful..
the forums are too compartmentalized and balkanized and the company to silent.
If is even worse with Garva and Jeassa trying to tell us what posts belong where when Jeassa has shown a general lack of knowledge of anything pertaining to the game.
Xader_Vartec wrote:
Did you miss this?:
There is NO INFORMATION THERE!!!
For example: this is one of the latest posts in the DE forum by the correspondent:
I can neither confirm nor deny any allegations of sm... Oh, sorry wrong question.
Its been fairly quite on the DEV front today. I know that there was a meetingtoday to go over some things, but thats about all I know. Publish 6 should be on its way tomorrow. There are at least5 items related to DE that will be going in on this publish, but they might not be the be all to end all that everyone is hoping for. The first and foremost concern that Sintrosi, and now I, pushed forare bug fixes.
As for the Droid Invasion info, I really can't say much at this time. Take that statement as you will, it is purposefully meant to be vague, but at least its an update.
This post is just shy of useless. It's obvious that even if the Devs ARE giving the correspondents information they are explicitely telling them to keep their mouths shut.
It has become obvious that there is a concerded(sp) effort to shut down communication to the player via the boards.
Have you read the Chef posts? It tells us what is going to happen, If you cant tell what is comming then maybe you should ask someone on that thread. If you have a problem with your correspondent then you should be complaining about that SirVimes has been doing everything he can to help us and tell us what is happening with Chefs.
Correspondents are just like us if you havea problem tell them what you think the problem is. If you want particular information then they will not give it to you. They will give you a idea of what is comming. Thats all we get A idea, stop complaining and add to the ideais my point.
DE needs help, soo they have dedicated 2 publishes to DE. Some of the next publish and almost all of the next. So dont complain until we see what they have done. After that you can say what ever you want because it has been released. Until then ask for there idea.
Georb79 wrote:
I would like to state something. TH is not intented to update everyone on upcomming changes. If wana know what is upcomming. Then you should accually visit the proffession threads. Check the Stickies. I know its hard to read but if you wana know that is the way to know. If you couldnt tell there is no publish or TC updates yet making notes useless.I go to about every profession and check the sticky list almost everytime I log in to see what is going on. TH doesnt play this game like a correspondent does. He doesnt know the proffessions like they do. Thats why they are there to be our insider inside. TH is suppose to talk with them on a constent basis which I am sure he does. If your too lazy to go check the proffession forums then that is your problem, you have 1486 post count but do you accually read threads?
I have red over 55k of posts, I only speak when I think I have worth while to say. Now I am getting tired of people complaining about communication when they themselves dont even read anything else. They cant post a update. If they did it would be in the version of update notes. Some of you people are soo literal that they cant afford to do that, or else get flamed for the next month on something that couldn't be achieved that month.
Soo my advise to you. Go check the proffession forums sticky's then come here.
Now....maybe you've read my post about how useless the profession boards are. . .
How am I supposed to know what changes are comming up for droids? I have a droid. I have a good friend of mine who is a DE. We have NO IDEA what DE changes are coming up in this patch that will supposedly get deployed any day now.
I guess I HAVE to play on test?
So much to say...so much to cover. Just to clairify, I'm here because my crafting tools refuse to boot up and I can't call my vehicle. Since I was grinding tailor...I'm pretty much stuck.
To SOE,
********** The Good
- I love the vehicles (at least when they don't poof). Great addition. Something the game has needed for a while.
- I loved the Christmas holos. Great concept! It changed the face of the game for sure.
********** The Bad - Please fix ASAP
- You've heard the autostore complaint enough, I'm hoping you get the idea. Please fix ooooor make it so we don't have to be in camp to call vehicles until it gets fixed. Options, take your pick.
********* Suggestions
*Hire Entertainers/Doctors - In player owned cantinas, as a part of the building admin, allow the owner to hire entertainers (exactly like vendors in houses). The quality of the entertainer would be dependent upon the cost of maintenance for that entertainer. Do the same for player owned medical centers.
For the customers - What is the point of having a cantina or med center if no one is never there?
For the owner - What is the point of owning a cantina or med center if you have to spend all your online time in them to make them valuable? Oooooo, fun!
*Universal translator - Hey if babelfish can do it, then I'm guessing you guys can work it out. Work in a English/Spanish and reverse translator....or include a English/Spanish dictionary in your future packaging. See, options...I'm easy. Of course the translator only works if people learn to spel.
* Droid/Mechanic Suggestion - DE's are techie and mechanically inclined. Although I'm sure the though of a mechnic profession may be bouncing around the white boards there for the big Space expansion...in the meantime allow DE's to customize and/or enhance vehicles. AND DON'T MAKE THE CUSTOMIZATIONS WEAR OFF...that concept hasn't worked out well for the DE so far. I'm dying to drop a little bling-bling on my swoop. A pair of dice hang from a x34 might be nice 
* Weather Radar - The range on my radar goes out to like 124m or more....but nothing ever pops up farther than 64m. Use a traditional color system on the radar as sort of weather storm watch for dangerous conditions. Tatooine, damaging sandstorms; Dathomir, lightening strikes (haha).
* Merchant Ad Barking strings - This may actually be there....just not known to the general public (or maybe I just missed it). Anyway, give merchants a string chart so they can customize their CUSTOM ad barking messages by player name, race, profession.
* Headlights! - We can build vehicles that hover above the ground but we still haven't invented the common headlight!
* Supply Ship Location - Hey if we can shuttle to planets why can't we dock with a friggin ship. No combat. Heck it doesn't even have to move, or maybe it does from planet to planet on a schedule (don't care). Mon Calamari Cruiser for Reb...Star Destroyer for Imp. It would be a nice segue to the space expanion. Just give people a reason to go there....you can't survey in a ship so maybe you can buy out of shift resources there at a cost..."it depends on how big your wallet is." And drop all those realllly hard to find trainers up there.
******* Wish list
* If you're overt your rank should show above your head...come on. How hard can this be?
******* Other Comments
This is specifically directed at the moron that suggested this type of forum as a good idea...and anyone that agreed with him. This is the most ridiculous excuse for a forum I've ever seen. If this is how you "Improve" communications remind me to send you a couple of tin cans and wire next Christmas....you should be awed by them. This will succeed in destroying any kind of community this site once had. Once visitors see that no one 'official' is posting any useful information they'll find homes elsewhere. No one is going to spend the 2 hours it would take to read this one single thread just to read the SAME COMPLAINTS OVER AND OVER AND OVER. They will leave by page 4 and again...find another home. All this thead/forum is, is a gripe session. And it is your fault SOE because you've given your customers...the general public no other option but to gripe and complain. GIVE THEM A TOPIC! I hereby give you permission to use any of the following free of charge. "Ideas for spacecraft. - Besides the Falcon, which ships would you most like to pilot?", "Building a better Droid Engineer - We're back to the blueprints for the Droid Engineer profession. Help us make DE a desireable profession.", oooor how about "At $14.99 a month what makes SWG worth being the most expensive MMORG on the market?". I'd love to read some threads in that last forum.
But what this forum does support is the ability to delete a weeks worth of gripes, suggestions and communication from your target audience with one simple click. All without the hassle of having to sift through and sort out the good ideas from the pests. Congrats! The board admin's life just got easier and you have more free time to read other more interesting things. May I suggest "Community Building on the Web : Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities " by Amy Jo Kim. I haven't personally read it, but from the look of things it wouldn'tdo you any harm.
Now...to the SWG community,
I see a lot of posts from people ragging on the devs. I'm not sure if it was properly addressed, but folks...the devs don't call the shots. There are a few clues that someone wants to see how well the game is going to progress (profit wise) before beginning the next big development cycle.
Sign #1 - I've been playing since like the second week and traffic in the cities, and apparently servers has died down considerably. Possibly a little more than expected to people sitting on the upper floors. There are several cities that are virtually ghost towns (not talking player cities). Does anybody reading this even know what planet Deja Peak is on????
There must be a falloff in subscriptions...or at least lower than expected number.
Sign #2 - the Christmas holos. Loved 'em! But also most likely a marketing toy. I mean come on...does 3 weeks really make someone a 'veteran' player? That doesn't even get you out of your 'free play' time. What that DOES do is possibly pull some people back into the game that were on the verge of quiting and maybe even pull some customers they'd lost (if the customers caught wind of it). A brilliant move, but possibly a little desperate.
Keep the people you do have. And keep them busy for a while.
Sign #3 - POI waypoints/location badges. Another tool to get people to 'get out more', then 'reward' them for doing it. Maybe people are just lazy, but I think putting the location of the Secret Rebel Base on a POI tab is a little too convenient for the dark lord of the sith.
....and keep them busy for a while.
Sign #4 - In Development....what? huh? - Making the website revamp their #1 priority for beginning of 2004. Uh, my hope is the same group of people aren't even working on the website that are working on the game....i pray. So where does that leave the game devs? Well we haven't exactly been swamped with "Space" info so I wouldn't be surprised if they were taking a little time off...or more likely finishing up EQ2.
No real development in the near future
Honestly, I hope the game MAKES IT to the space expansion.
Well that's it. Not that anyone is gonna read all of it. But at least it gave me something to do while I sit back the suggested 10-15 minutes it said in my holocron before logging back on to SWG with some hope that I can either craft again or call my vehicle.
Have fun all.
Raelin Thorthal
Radiant Server
Master Weaponsmith/Artisan/soon to be Tailor
2 things I want to see soon:
-GCW Bug fixes
-Smuggler fixes/changes
A few suggestion for smuggler changes/fixes, that would make it so people would LOVE to be master:
1) move buying fp up to Master Smuggler
2) allow selection of slicing (effect/encumb on armor, speed/damage on guns).
3) Give us Smuggler missions in underworld for UWIII instead of the useless "sell out" thing.
4) Make it more known and maybe raise the slicing % for master to 50%.
Lots more good ones on the smuggler forum.