Development Cycle Archive

I already know 98% percent of you people have some twisted idea of "fun"...but I'll throw my thoughts in to the ring, anyway...

I HATE the whole overt/covert system...not because of tefs, but because it makes NO sense that a covert member of a faction can't attack an overt. It's just one of those silly completely arbitrary game issues to keep people from whining that somone killed them.

If an overt member walks into a town overt...anybody from the opposing faction should be able to jump on the overt. And as soon as they DO...They should be flagged overt, or teffed, because suddenly they're actually showing their colors instead of hiding as an overt.

That makes SENSE.

I just hate all these arbitrary decisions just because people whine about their characters getting attacked...I mean, come ON...You walk in to a group of imperials shouting about being a rebel, and you don't expect to get attacked just because they're not ADVERTISING that they're imperials? What, my blaster pistol won't fire unless I shout imperial a few times first?

If you're going to keep the covert/tef/overt thing the way it is...At LEAST come up with a plausible in-game rationale for it...I guess maybe I should just be playing some other mmorpg with a real pvp system in it, but there aren't many options there that are worthwhile...

Dropoff Vendor located on Dantooine : -760, 1164.
Just about 1k South of Mining Outpost!

Remove TEF entirely.

If your overt you cannot not inter-act with covert players at all, period.

Youmust be overt, to give overt buffs.

Wanna run missions? MUst be overt (get a pvp template first)

TEF system is only used for greifing, and coward tatics.

Removely will mean if you want to PVP, you will need to be attackable at ALL TIMES.

Col Er'ik Striker/Erickson
Jedi Killer - SWG
60 Paladin Daggerspine
Nerf Shaman

just a few words....

At one time We has tossed up the idea of having an image designer Make people overt on the go... This would give the ID something to help the GCW and feel needed in the galaxy...

Perhaps An MID could flip people overt by running a2.5 min timer then have it flip to overt player side in 10 mins. and vice versa to covert...

It'd be like a factional tatoo.. kinda like spreading the xwing into attack position....

just a thought.

Long live the emperor.

MeiYuki

Ache Me on! I love stalking my Prey.
IPC ...for life! (valcyn)
'Nova (starsider)

Get rid of TEFing and place faction recruiters in each city so everyone can easily go overt no matter what city they are in.

I don't care if it isn't realistic to have a Rebel recruiter in Bestine, or Theed, or some city with the Imperial Crackdown, but whatever. The recruiter is really good and hides well from the Imps or Rebels. It can be done. Good enough explanation? I think so.

-= Xaneth Moahiwra =-
"Nothing goes on forever. Not falls, not you, not I, not love, not life. Entropy consumes everything. We all hit bottom, sooner or later."

Group tef remains the worst for griefing in the game. It is not uncommon to see one or two overts ( usually but not always jedi ) at a starport grouped with upwards of 18 coverts. So that when someone shoots at the overt then the coverts get a group tef on them and kill them. This is not just used in starports, seen it during base attacks as well.

Group tef needs to be removed entirely from the game, in its place Overts should only be able to group with overts and coverts only with coverts ( or if a covert groups with an Overt they instantly become overt....because if your grouped with an overt you are not being covert......)

Tef resulting from trading and doc buffs is not a problem. However we see many people using the LD trick to get past this. The LD trick is also being used by Jedi to kill BH droids and to avoid combat ( other overts are also beginning to use this. ). What needs to happen is regardless of whether you go LD for any reason ( because many of them do it on purpose....I know several jedi that login and out every half hour on purpose ) you remain Overt and in the state you where previously. Yes this means docs will not be able to buff overts in the starports without getting teffed...tough that is part of buffing an overt if you are not overt. Also with this BH droids should report the last known location of the Jedi. This is a major exploit.

I am unaware of any other problems with tef.

-Wanderhome- Mecinia, Mecinea
-Intrepid- Yovi
-Radiant- Enoorea, Bienurdau
Collected Expansion Ideas and Game Upgradesi


"There is no emotion, there is peace; There is no ignorance, there is knowledge; There is no passion, there is serenity; there is no choas, there is order;There is no death, there is the Force" from the Jedi code.

My biggest problem with TEFs is how you get them when you are scanned. In particular my one character that happens to be rebel, as any Imperial character doesn't have this problem and neutral characters only have to worry about smuggler enhanced equipment. My rebel character hasn't had any smuggler equipment on them for some time, and I don't have any rebel perks on my character either. The rebels are just that members of a rebellion, and a rebellion is not where you fight country against country but where within the given boundaries of an established Government you have a significant group that feels that the government is so oppressive and it's methods so controled that any effort to change the system from within non-violently is never going to work. So you start a Rebellion with like minded people. This is by necessity covert because they are outgunned, outmanned and usually have somewhat dated equipment and the war is carried out within the confines of the same Government territories as those you hope to depose.

Rebels do not go around with ID that states they are rebels, they wouldn't wear their uniforms in public, they don't wear their rank insignia, in other words they are a rebellion which must function covertly if they are to have a chance to win the war. Imperials on the other hand would wear their uniforms proudly and obviously to remind people who is in power and who they need to obey (the Emporer in this case), except in very limited situations such as infiltration of the enemy to learn of their plans, but otherwise they wear the uniform of the day. But what is happening in game is no matter what happens if you get within range of some scanner, either stationary or mobile so they can be taken with Imperial stormtroopers. When you don't have any rebel equipment, nor any smuggler equipment on you and they scan you they still automatically "Know you are a rebel". This can only mean that one's DNA somehow labels them as Rebels! What? Now come on, how is that possible. If it was this easy to figure out who is rebel and who wasn't they Empire would have destroyed the Rebellion before it ever got of the ground.

Now we are moving into JTL and even more of the this inconsistancy is happening. First the rebellion would use both their own "rebel" ships with rebel markings and they would use covert ships (neutral design, neutral insignias, etc.). But with ships you fly into a planets starbase and in some cases with an Imperial starbase not all that far off and you are in say an X-Wing (no not every X-Wing is rebel), you have been clearly in a fight (blaster markings on you hull) and they can't recognize you as a rebel (?), ok, that is very convient but you mean the Empire wouldn't have agents there looking expressly for things that would give any ship away as belonging to the rebellion.

Then we have "secret bases" (Rebel for the most part) and they are on the POIs listing. Yes I understand that players would pretty quickly know where the "secret" bases are located, but I still see for immersions sake you just don't put a rebel secret base on the Points of Interst land marks. Wouldn't Every imperial battlecruiser pay this wonderful POI land mark a visit joyful Ion cannon attacks?

These are not hard things to change. 1. Unless they are carrying on them equipment of some sort, either illegal such as smuggler sliced equipment or Rebel faction equipment, then scans should be unable to detect any covert rebel that is "clean". 2. Remove all rebel bases from POIs 3. have rebel space craft launch and land at Rebel bases or "secret" launch points on various planets. One should only get a TEF if one is either obviously with a rebel group in action or having either rebel equipment or smuggler equipment on them.

And yes there should be safe areas such as hidding equipment in storage bays on bots (Leia storing theBattlestars plans on the bot)- which is exactly what happened in the movies, or "secret" storage areas on vehicles (which was also in the movies, Han Solo's ship where everyone hid from the scanners on board the DeathStar which was the most sofisticated equimpment the Empire had available) which scanning can't pick up. Thus you can be carrying on covert activities but staying within the frame work that the movies allow.

Then TEFs should disappear on their own after a raid within a short time frame (just like real rebels disappearing into the surroundings as fast as they can after a quick hit and run mission). This all is historically true throughout human history. Rebels don't go around wearing uniforms that identify them as rebels. Any rebellion/revolution/civil war that is an internal war is fought this way (an excellent example for any US person is the American Revolution). The British wore the Kings/Queens military colors (in this case red and white) Marched in orderly lines making their presence know and seeking to make sure the kings power and authority was respected and accomplished, and those unfair American colonists who wore everyday closes, snuck in and attacked quickly and then quickly faded back into the surrounding country side, they looked like everyday loyal citizens, and this is what makes such wars so very difficult to prosecute. Yes their would be times when you got caught and identified and need to have a new identity given to you, and in these cases I can understand being overt until you can get to a rebel agent who can after 1 hr for game play sake give you a new identiity and thus you are covert once again.

Anyway this is just my 2 cents worth on the TEFs and game immersion and game play helps associated with TEFs.

Jolandir

Group tefs are silly. If you want to PVP, go overt. Overts attack overts. No mistakes, no getting pulled into a combat situation your not ready for, and no riding other's overt status.

On a similar note: NO MORE GROUP TEF FOR BOUNTY HUNTERS! Take out the damn group tefs BHers use to gank jedi. Just plain stupid. If you want to be a BH, do it alone. Don't remember any BHers running around in the movies or the books in tefing gank squads hunting jedi.

Take out any tefs at allin faction. Imps cannot attack imps no matter what.Rebels cannot attack rebels. Imp BH on jedi? Not if he's Imperial. About the stupidest idea yet where tefs are concerned. What's the point of being any faction if your imperial and a jedi if an imperial BH can get tef on you with 5 of his buddies and your buddies have to stand by and watch them all gank you...

Another thing on this subject is: How in the hell did someone come up with the idea that a BH can have a tef on a jedi and the jedi not know that a guy standing by him for an hour can attack him any time he chooses? Did Yoda and Emperor decide that the Force would not function around BHers? Are the jedi so clueless that they cannot see/sense a BH comming to get them? Come on fellas, get with the path/feel/content/context of the game! How can an "all-knowing force-sensitive" jedi not havea return tef ona BH UNTIL the BH attacks? Someone did not think this one through... If a BH takes a mission on you and your a jedi, you should know it: "You feel a disturbance in the force. A person desires your death!"

Once a BHer kills you, any and all missions on you drop. Your removed from the terminals. If another BH takes your mission after you die to the first one, that BH cannot complete his quest. For example: I got killed on Endor by a BH when I went to the refrigerator to get a drink. I used my rez ring once he was out of sight. While on my way to the shuttle to go get rebuffed, another BH pops out of the woods, shoots my bike out and kills me quick. I clone at the clone center, walk over to the shuttle port to leave the planet and get rebuffed, and lo and behold; another BH shuttles in and attacks killing me again. 3 BHs in 5 minutes. 220k a pop for a whopping 660,000 XP lost. Well there goes the whole past week of grinding and all 4 of my accounts are on hold with the credit card company till someone steps up and makes this problem a non-problem. I'd love for a dev to come in the forums and make those bull$hit excuses for this one...

Hope this enlightened someone. If only some of the people who make decisions about how things are done read these or were even slightly interested in what the customer base thought... If only...

Having some kind of symbol appear by your name would be nice. The TEF that appears after killing an opposed faction NPC goes away after a few minutes, but if you are scanned and made overt, there is no indication of that. This happened to me last night and I had no idea I was turned declared and when I arrived in a busy starport was ambushed and slaughtered. After reading back over my spatial, I saw the announcement from the IMP NPC that I was made declared and open to enemy attack. I don't care about the TEF if I openly attack an NPC because that's the chance I'm taking and I know what the consequences are.

This is my issue: In combat, the information goes by too quickly onscreen and in the chat box to sometimes catch these little surprises. So unless I open up my health/faction box (forgot what it's called exactly) to check my status then I won't always catch the overt/declared notification. So I get caught completely by surprise, being snuck up from behind and killed. In PVP situations, when I intentionally declare to fight and if I get killed (hasn't happened yet), that is a different story all together. In PVP, I am taking the chance that yes I know I'm overt and yes I know I can be killed/attacked, etc. But when you are not intending on doing PVP then you should not be forced into it bygame development.

The warning given in spatial is weak and can go unnoticed. Again to reiterate, just like the TEF that appears by your name after killing an opposed faction NPC, the same should be indicated when you are made overt by scanners or contraband searches. Had I saw that, I would have sought out a recruiter to change my status instead of walking right into enemy territory unprepared. I also would like to see a change made that if you die then the overt status is gone, not justwhen you clone but also when rezed or use the Hero ring to rez.

There are players who like to PVP and I'm not knocking that at all. I say though, that consideration should be taken for those who are not interested in PVP and want no part of it at all. There are other ways of enjoying the game for people and we all shouldn't be pushed into PVP if it's not what we want to do in the game. Like I heard the Jedi Knight's are automatically overt - is that true? Why push that on people? For some, that is not why they play the game, for others it is or a little of both. It should be the choice of the individual playing.

overts shouldnt get tefs. no point in this.

Torval Resin X Vas Deference
I'm not a Jedi kthx