Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Weekly Rountdable Discussion (Week Ending 1-18-04)
Hello again,
I think we need a new catagory in artisen skills that could goalong withthe domestic tree. Suppose you develope a skill which would allow player to creat scupltures and make painting by using screen shots.
Tulsa
Thunderheart wrote:
Secondly, given some of the above, I noticed that Development Team IS LISTENING and making choices based upon this feedback in this thread and the other.
Thanks Wepps. Thats the goal.
We are definately listening, and I am tracking all the important stuff.There is a lot going on and we are reaching an important phase of the project.
As a fan, one of the things that really rubs me the most is when you hear, "hey see all this neat stuff or check out this neat game in _________". You wait, you hang, you chat and then when real world things happen to delay a date, there is that wave of disappointment.
I'm trying to build a method of communication that works to reduce that as much as possible. At the beginning of an idea, everyone likes to talk about all of its possibilities, but as we go forward, I have to keep a keen eye on whats coming and the timing.
So, in the mean time, I've gotten very involved in the processand I've been focused on scheduling and choices and a lot of issues. My goal is to find out whats going to be happening and when so that when I post, its postedat the appropriate time. Timing is very important to the inclusion of player ideas. What I did yesterday and today is take 251 player issues, analyze them, sort them and make some hard choices. The goal was to come up with a good selection of important items that are going to be done right away, In Concept items and In Development items.
I know people want more to talk about, but really, there are two categories of items to talk about. Stuff to talk about thats going on currently and a lot of stuff that is just coffee table chat. My goal is to make sure that when something is going on internally, that there are items where I can get genuine feedback involved.
- Why dont Artisans have a correspondant?
- Who decides what is important?
- Who decides what is coffee talk, and what isnt?
Oh, wait if it has the word "Artisan" in it, then it must be "coffee talk" because i sure as hell havent seen any official word come out of the artisan boards since the initial feedback on the "Top-5" issues that are now sure as hell ignored if we can take the total lack of a correspondant into any type of consideration.
This entire shutting down of the SWG forums reeks of the time when EQ shut down the Official Forums and shoved that walking sock-puppet Abashi (later Absor) into the player-community's face.
The only real differance is that you seem to have a lot more understanding of the basic working of the game. Abashi and Absor decidedly had NO CLUE as to how the game worked, and to this day are nothing more than PR mouthpieces to dissiminate patch notes to the EQ playerbase.
The #1 mistake an MMORPG company can do is to shut out the line of communication to its playerbase, such as you have done.
How about some freaking responses to the profession forums, or at LEAST some better care of the correspondants because the Artisan Correspondant hasnt been seen or heard from in 6 weeks.
Thunderheart wrote:
Hirrarcheen wrote:
TH your posts aren't showing up in the Dev Tracker again.
Yeah. Last I heard, the Lithium guys were working to get it fixed...
GREAT.
HAVE THEM FIX
THE HORRIDLY
BROKEN SEARCH
ENGINE AS WELL.
MY LAST POST WAS
NOT IN OCTOBER.
Hummmm this seems kind of redundent to me. Open up a theard every week for what? You should know the problems of the game. I.E lack of content, need of things actually working, and I must say bad crs. So instead of posting a thread every week about problems we have last week lets just do what needs to be done. Overhaul Profs, Fix GCW, Fix PVP, No decay in PVP, add more contect and for the love of luke can I please get a lightsaber. Preaty please. But really you won't need to do these threads if you actually got done what you said to. Also it seems that while you open these threads no response is give. How about including the players in this. Cause at one point you will open a thread like this and have no one respond cause we went to a game where the devs/crs actually took our advice. I have never played eq but I think you would have learned a bit from the 6+ years its been up.
Though I think at one point in the game we will get to a point where problems are mundane and we have a world full of content. I look forward to that day. /crossfingershopesitcomes
Squidwalker wrote:Come one devs, and NRaas, look whats happening to Ranger. We are the "harvesters" of the game. When I have people ask for services of me, it is only to ask if I can harvest a ton of some kind of organic resource. Yes, I setup an organization that is all about that, but that's because that's the best thing Ranger is good for right now. I almost never get asked to track, and I'm never asked for use of ANY of my other skills. Most people have novice scout, so they don't need my camps, and now with vehicle/mount/pet changes they wont even need it themselves. I don't really have a problem with that, but I think you need to make some changes to Ranger, AND FAST. I say this because to many game changes are going on right now that make ranger more and more useless, which means less and less fun. You hear that devs, less fun. I know we have gotten some changes additions early on, and we were now basically on the bottom of the list for development. But there are to many game/profession(not ranger) changes, that are effecting our profession, dramatically. So how about we get pushed back up to the top of the list and get some major changes to ranger to keep it alive. Otherwise I fear many of us rangers that are in it because we love it and enjoy, just may leave it. If that part of the player base leaves ranger, you will only have Holo gamers in ranger.
Think about the consequences of your actions. I'm not saying stop all these other changes, I'm just saying think about how those changes, effect some proffesions, and don't wait 6 months to overhaul those professions.
I dumped Ranger ages ago, after they nerfed Camouflage into Camouflage for Rangers and Mask Scent for Scouts. The increased scent masking ability is why I took it in the first place, and when I lost it, my Ranger skills went bye-bye. I can't imagine going back.
I just posted the following private message to Blair, the "manager" for this worthless game. The names have been removed of my accounts, but the content is the same.
I suppose you've got a mailbox full of these messages, so I'll TRY to be brief and to the point.
I own and pay for the following accounts, none of which have been banned:
"6 fully paid for accounts, with boxes and numbers removed"
I'm adamantly against cheating in any form. I've clicked every button in this game to get every single skill I have, minus my harvesting macros.
I've endured your horrible bugs, lack of content, watching my friends leave, my PA leader quit the game, and watching every feeble attempt at expanding the game cause an infinite amount of NEW bugs, which go months without being addressed.
Now, you banned a guy named Kazander in the game. I have no idea what his login info is, but doubt seriously that he was a duper, as you stated when you banned his account. Whether he was or not is besides the point, your game is so full of bugs that you will not fix, how is anyone supposed to keep track of the bannable vs non-bannable bugs? Am I next to be banned, simply for playing the game? For having too many credits? For not writing favorable letters to people I can only assume take themselves far too seriously for no reason at all?
I'll wait for 15 days. If Kazandar of Naritus does not have his account reinstated, I'm going to pull the plug on all of my accounts and go play another game. I don't even care what game it is. But then again, if you are willing to toss a bunch of accounts for *gasp* playing by the existing rules, then what will my 6 accounts mean to you? Probably nothing.
Sincerely,
Lewk BodyKraft
Naritus
Now, since I don't expect a response from this nitwit, nor any other manager, csr, or agent of this totally bass ackwards organization, I'll post even more complaints. Pardon the yelling, I'm pissed.
your
I just posted this private message to Blair, but I'll post it here, since I imagine I won't be here much longer. My account names have been removed, but all else is exactly what I sent, for what it's worth.
I suppose you've got a mailbox full of these messages, so I'll TRY to be brief and to the point.
I own and pay for the following accounts, none of which have been banned:
[six fully paid for and owned by me accounts go here]
I'm adamantly against cheating in any form. I've clicked every button in this game to get every single skill I have, minus my harvesting macros.
I've endured your horrible bugs, lack of content, watching my friends leave, my PA leader quit the game, and watching every feeble attempt at expanding the game cause an infinite amount of NEW bugs, which go months without being addressed.
Now, you banned a guy named Kazander in the game. I have no idea what his login info is, but doubt seriously that he was a duper, as you stated when you banned his account. Whether he was or not is besides the point, your game is so full of bugs that you will not fix, how is anyone supposed to keep track of the bannable vs non-bannable bugs? Am I next to be banned, simply for playing the game? For having too many credits? For not writing favorable letters to people I can only assume take themselves far too seriously for no reason at all?
I'll wait for 15 days. If Kazandar of Naritus does not have his account reinstated, I'm going to pull the plug on all of my accounts and go play another game. I don't even care what game it is. But then again, if you are willing to toss a bunch of accounts for *gasp* playing by the existing rules, then what will my 6 accounts mean to you? Probably nothing.
Sincerely,
Lewk BodyKraft
Naritus
Now, I'm going to let my fill out here, pardon my yelling, but I've about had it.
THERE ARE SO MANY BUGS IN THIS GAME IT IS ALMOST NOT PLAYABLE. YOU ARE CHARGING ME TO BE YOUR BETA TESTER, EXCEPT YOU AREN'T EVEN SMART ENOUGH TO READ THE BUG FIXES I SEND TO YOU SO YOU CAN EVENTUALLY MAKE IT TO A 1.0 PRODUCT.
I used to have loads of fun at this. Still do, up till now. If kazander was cheating, I'll eat my left arm. This was the final straw.
What does it say about your lousy game when, in your FIRST WEEK you solicit posts about the live server and YOU GET 25 FREAKING PAGES OF PEOPLE CHEWING YOUR ASS??????????
Your priorities are TOTALLY wrong. Your LEFT WING, LIBERAL APPROACH to this game is KILLING IT. The way you respond to all the whining about "overpowered" characters and "cheaters" and etc., it is obvious you are all either communists, or brain dead plastic banana dope smokers.
What the hell are you doing nerfing professions and adding new bugs, when you have NO content to speak of, have not updated your vaunted CRIES OF ALDERON story in months, have forced nearly every creature handler I know of to either leave the game or drop CH altogether???
Speaking of professions, how many droid engineers do you have in all galaxies combined? 10? 15? Wonder why THAT is...... Could it be all your broken promises to them? Oh sure, you've got some minor trinkets coming for them in the next month or two... WHOOPIE DOO! Just think about the 20 bugs you'll introduce with the next patch ON TOP OF the 200+ bugs that already exist in this game, and I just get so excited I can hardly contain my anticipation.
Do you realize that harvesters have had no animations for 10 weeks now, and that we actually have to turn them off, then back on again to get them to calculate the actual amount of power that is in them, and have to do that every time the server resets, just so they stay running? Do you even have an answer? I do...
I'd be willing to bet all six of my accounts on the fact that y'all have been spending most of your time coordinating the launch of Evercrack 2 with those boys, and have lost half your team to them. You think you can drop us a few bones with lasers on droids and we'll just be dumb and happy till you get your crap back together and have a few extra minutes to spend catching up.
Well, truth is, I might not wait 15 days for you to reverse the totally unfounded banning of Kazander. I can't believe I've played this garbage scow for this long, thinking it even RESEMBLED a millenium falcon. I guess all the people I've known who have quit this game were right, it won't ever get any better until you lose 20-30% of your subscription base, and all the birkenstock wearers get the axe.
Good luck to those of you willing to put up with this behavior. If you see me around, consider yourself lucky.
Lewkus
bug....
We are sorry for your troubles and can see how fustrating that can be.. We are sorry to say we dont have the power to help you with your current problem. We were unable to find what your saying in the log files.. We ask that you please delete your ticket now and may the force be with you.
Now why would they want to fix all the bugs. When they can have us pay for a game that doesn't work right.......
I can't believe that you banned peoples account and not even email them about it. What a joke.
What were you thinking?
For lack of a better place, I'll drop these here. Couple of minor continuity problems with some of the more important NPCs, as they've been presented.
1- Thrackan Sal-Solo is giving out missions in the CorSec center on Coronet. It's good that he's there to be seen in the game and all, but there's an important detail missed here: From the time that Han became a smuggler (as in, pre-SWG) to the time shortly before the Centerpoint crisis (about 15 years past SWG), he's supposed to be in hiding, building an alliance in the Corellian underground. Perhaps he should be hidden in the Agrilat swamps like...
2- Dalla Solo. Also great to have another member of the Solo clan. This one is a evil sort of guy, which was captured as well as could be hoped by his dialogue. One problem: Dalla Solo was briefly believed to be Han's grandfather. He wasn't, but he should probably have grey hair by the time of SWG, instead of looking like a spry young man.
3- Wedge is a great pilot and in the end became a general in the New Republic, but during the time of SWG he's just a pilot. His office is probably a bit too big for his rank, especially given that generals are a dime a dozen, and there's never any shortage for Imperials to kill.
4- Although the Darklighter clan as a whole supported the rebellion, Huff himself tried to remain as neutral as possible to prevent conflicts of interest in his business. It seems sort of odd that he'd have Rebellion mission terminals all over his house.
Not that any of this is going to change, since these focus threads can be conveniently ignored by everyone, but it seems worth mentioning.
Ok TH. It's Sunday. You ready to be strung up by your ears? 
Seriously though. Got some info for us today ole buddy ole pal? Huh? Didya didya didya?...